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Copies  of  this  little  book  have  been  sent  to  several  thousand 
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express  his  views  as  to  the  value  of  this  effort  thus  to  bring' 
the  vital  subject  of  "Preaching  Christ"  to  the  prayerful 
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Please  address  J.  W.  M.,  care  of  B^ton  Young  Men's 
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THE   WORK 


OP 


PREACHING    CHRIST. 


DELIVERED    TO    THE    CLERGY   OP    THE  DIOCESE    OF    OHIO,    AT    ITS    FORTY- 

SIXTH   ANNUAL  CONVENTION,  IN   ST.  PAUL'S  CHURCH, 

*"      %  ^ 

AKRON,  ON  THE  3D  OF*JUNE,  1863. 


BY  CHARLES 


,  D.  D.,  D.  C.  L., 


ANSON  D.   F.   RANDOLPH, 

770  BROADWAY, 
1864. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1864, 

BY  CHARLES   PETTIT   HoIL^AINE, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 
Southern  District  of  New  York. 


EDWAKD  0.   JENKINS, 

printer  antJ  .Stereotgper, 
No.  20  NORTH  WILLIAM  ST. 


CHARGE 

To  THE  CLERGY  OF  THE  DIOCESE  OF  OHIO  : 

BRETHREN, — It  is  a  long  time  since  I  addressed 
you  in  the  form  of  a  Charge.  Various  have  been 
the  causes  ;  the  chief  of  them,  as  you  well  know, 
having  been  connected  with  the  state  of  my  health. 
Addressing  you  again  in  that  mode,  and  with  exclu- 
sive reference  to  matters  peculiar  to  our  office  as 
Ministers  of  Christ,  realizing  how  near  my  time  is 
to  lay  it  down,  I  choose  a  subject  with  which  a 
Bishop  may  well  desire  to  close  his  ministry  ;  which 
indeed  all  our  work  should  be  identified  with,  and 
which,  I  am  thankful  to  say,  has  been  obtaining,  ever 
since  mine  began,  a  deeper  and  stronger  possession 
of  my  mind,  my  affections,  and  my  ministry — I  mean 
the  work  of  preaching  Christ,  according  to  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  the  example  of  the  Apostles. 

"  Go  preach  the  Gospel,"  were  the  words  of  our 

(3) 


4  THE  WORK  OF  PKEACHING  CHRIST. 

Lord  to  his  Apostles,  which  conveyed  to  them  and 
to  us  the  whole  weight  and  substance  of  the  com- 
mission of  his  Ministers  and  Ambassadors.  It  was 
the  unquestioning  obedience  of  a  simple  and  unhesi- 
tating faith  to  that  one  command,  animated  by  an 
unquenchable  love  to  its  divine  Author  and  to  the 
souls  he  died  to  save,  enlightened  by  the  teaching 
and  made  mighty  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
that  constituted  all  the  vigour  and  efficacy  of  the 
ministry  of  the  Apostles.  It  was  thus  that  their 
weapons  of  warfare  became  "  mighty  through  God," 
and  achieved  those  stupendous  victories  of  the  truth 
over  "  the  spirit  that  ruleth  in  the  children  of  diso- 
bedience," which  the  weaker  faith  and  more  timid 
obedience  of  the  Church  in  later  days  have  so  poorly 
imitated.  And,  as  in  the  beginning,  so  also  in  all 
times  of  the  Christian  dispensation,  it  has  pleased 
God  that  sinners  shall  be  brought  "  into  captivity  to 
the  obedience  of  Christ"  and  made  partakers  of  his 
salvation,  by  the  obedience  of  his  ministers  to  that 
one  original  charge  and  co'mmand — "preach  the 
Gospel"  Faith  by  hearing  ;  Gospel  faith,  by  hear- 
ing Gospel  truth  ;  and  such  hearing,  by  the  preach- 
ing of  the  word  of  God,  is  His  standing  rule  accord- 


THE   WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST.  5 

ing  to  which  He  bestows  His  Spirit  for  the  convic- 
tion, conversion,  and  sanctification  of  men. 

But  it  is  manifest  from  the  Scriptures  that  the 
Apostles  identified  the  Gospel  with  Christ ;  so  that, 
in  their  view  and  practice,  to  preach  the  Gospel  was 
neither  more  nor  less  than  to  preach  Christ.  The 
record  which,  in  a  few  words,  describes  their  minis- 
try is  that,  "  daily  in  the  temple  and  in  every  house, 
they  ceased  not  to  teach  and  preach  Jesus  Christ." 
St.  Paul  to  the  Romans  defines  the  whole  Gospel  by 
saying  that  it  is  "  concerning  Jesus  Christ."*  The 
employment  of  his  two  years7  imprisonment  at  Rome 
was  all  comprehended  in  "  teaching  those  things 
which  concern  the  Lord  Jesus."  And  his  whole 
ministry  was  given  unto  him,  he  testifies,  that  he 
"  might  preach  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ." 
As  he  could  say,  "  For  me  to  live  is  Christ ;"  so  for 
him  to  preach  was  Christ.  To  him  Christ  and  the 
Gospel  were  one. 

But  we  must  here  note  the  chief  feature  in  their 
preaching  of  Christ.  They  omitted  nothing  pertain- 
ing to  him  ;  but  there  was  one  thing  on  which,  more 
than  anything  else,  they  very  particularly  and  em- 

*  Rom.  i.  3. 


6  THE   WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHEIST. 

phatically  dwelled.  They  took  great  pains  to  set 
forth  the  Lord  Jesus  in  all  that  he  was  and  is,  in 
person  and  office,  as  once  on  earth  and  now  in 
heaven,  his  preexistent  glory  with  the  Father,. his 
incarnation  and  humiliation  in  our  nature,  his  death, 
resurrection,  and  intercession ;  all  his  love,  all  his 
promises,  all  his  commandments  ;  so  that  there  was 
no  part  of  the  whole  counsel  of  God  "  concerning 
His  Son  Jesus  Christ,"  which  they  kept  back.  But 
manifestly  there  was  one  event  in  his  history,  one 
work  amidst  all  his  works,  which  stood  in  their  view 
as  the  great  event  and  work,  around  which  they 
gathered  the  force  of  their  testimony,  as  its  central 
light  and  power — to  which  they  made  all  that  went 
before  it  look  forward  for  consummation,  and  all 
that  succeeded  look  back  as  to  its  foundation,  and 
on  the  faithful  declaration  of  which,  with  its  imme- 
diate connections,  they  very  especially  rested  the 
faithfulness  of  their  work  as  preachers  of  the  Gos- 
pel. No  doubt  you  anticipate  me.  Such  passages 
of  the  Apostles  arise  to  your  minds,  as,  "  we  preach 
Christ  crucified  /"  "  I  determined  not  to  know  any- 
thing among  you  (while  declaring  unto  you  the  testi- 
mony of  God)  save  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified  /" 


THE   WORK  OF  PREACHING   CHRIST.  7 

"  God  forbid  that  I  should  glory  save  in  the  cross 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;"  "  For  the  preaching  of 
the  cross  is  to  them  that  perish  foolishness,  but  unto 
us  which  are  saved  it  is  the  power  of  God."  They 
preached  Christ — but  as  Christ  crucified.  They 
said  continually,  like  John  the  Baptist,  "  Behold  the 
Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the 
world/7  but  it  was  the  "  Lamb  slain" — Christ  in  his 
death — bearing  "  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the 
tree,"  that  they  pointed  to.  They  rejoiced  in  every- 
thing pertaining  to  their  Lord,  from  his  birth  at 
Bethlehem  to  his  present  glory  at  .the  Father's  right 
hand ;  but  the  one  thing  in  which  they  rejoiced  so 
supremely,  that  everything  else  was  lost  in  compari- 
son, was  his  cross.  Of  the  two  sacraments  ordained 
of  Christ  for  his  Church,  that  which  alone  goes  with 
the  believer  to  be  renewed  and  repeated  all  along 
the  way  of  his  earthly  life,  has  for  its  great  object 
to  "  show  the  Lord's  death  until  he  come."  It  was 
a  great  lesson  which  the  Lord  thus  taught  us  as  to 
how  we  must  preach  him.  His  Apostles  therefore 
became  in  speech,  what  that  sacrament  is  in  sym- 
bol ;  constantly  showing  the  Lord's  death  as  the 
sinner's  life.  Thus,  when  they  spoke  of  the  Chris- 


8  THE   WOKK   OF   PEEACHING   CHEIST. 

tian's  race  for  "  the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God 
in  Christ  Jesus" — and  when  they  exhorted  us  while 
in  that  contest  to  be  always  "  looking  unto  Jesus" — 
the  special  aspect  in  which  they  presented  him,  was 
as  enduring  the  cross.  And  I  need  not  here  say 
that  their  sense  of  the  supreme  importance  in  their 
ministry  of  the  death  of  Christ  was  because  they 
beheld  therein  the  one  only  and  the  one  all-sufficient 
sacrifice  and  propitiation,  the  vicarious  atonement, 
for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world  ;  that  great  work  of 
God  wherein  he  laid  in  Zion,  for  a  sure  foundation, 
the  precious  cornerstone,  on  which  the  sinner  be- 
lieving shall  not  be  confounded.  It  is  all  contained 
in  one  verse — "  Christ  hath  once  suffered  for  sins, 
the  just  for  the  unjust  to  bring  us  to  God."*  And 
again,  "  Christ  hath  redeemed  us  from  the  curse  of 
the  law,  being  made  a  curse  for  us."t 

Thus,  brethren,  we  have  our  lesson  and  example. 
In  the  way  the  Apostles  preached  the  Gospel  we  must 
try  to  preach  it.  As  they  preached  Christ,  so  must 
we.  God  forbid  that  we  should  glory  in  anything 
else  as  ministers  of  the  word.  Preachers  of  Christ, 
according  to  the  mind  of  Christ — ah,  how  all  hon- 

,  *  1  Pet.  iii.  18.  t  Gal-  "*•  13- 


THE   WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST.  9 

ors,  all  satisfaction  in  our  work  will  perish  but  that ! 
When  our  stewardship  is  to  be  accounted  for,  and 
we  are  just  departing,  and  the  veil,  half  drawn  aside, 
discloses  what  we  are  to  meet  and  what  to  be  for- 
ever, how  then  shall  we  care  for  praise  of  learning 
or  praise  of  speech  or  any  vapors  of  men's  applause ! 
But  then,  to  have  "  the  testimony  of  our  conscience 
that  in  simplicity  and  godly  sincerity, — not  with 
enticing  words  of  man's  wisdom/7  we  have  made  it 
our  life-business  and  our  heart-pleasure  to  "  teach 
and  preach  Jesus  Christ/7  as  they  did  whom  he 
gave  to  be  our  examples,  having  ourselves  first  learn- 
ed his  preciousness  to  our  own  souls  ;  oh,  what  con- 
solation and  thankfulness  with  which  to  die. 

Evidently  then,  my  brethren,  it  is  a  most  serious 
question  to  be  always  studying,  how  we  may  so 
proclaim  the  truth  committed  to  us  in  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, that  in  the  sense  of  the  Apostles  it  may  be  said 
of  us  in  our  whole  ministry  that  "  we  preach  Christ 
crucified.77  To  this  we  devote  this  address.  It  is 
a  great  question  indeed.  Many  are  the  failures — 
many  the  egregious  failures.  Sometimes  it  seems  as 
if  the  preacher  could  preach  just  as  he  does  if 
Christ  and  his  work  were  a  mere  incident  in  reli- 
1* 


10  THE   WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST. 

gion,  a  name,  and  little  more — answering  now  and 
then  as  a  convenience  to  a  sentence  ;  introduced 
occasionally,  because,  under  some  texts,  not  easily 
avoided,  but  never  as  the  root  and  foundation  out 
of  which  our  whole  ministry  proceeds.  But  what 
awful  condemnation  to  be  thus  essentially  defective 
at  the  very  heart  of  the  great  work  committed  to  us ! 
Nothing  can  in  the  least  atone  for  its  absence.  You 
might  as  well  attempt  to  turn  night  into  day,  by 
lighting  a  candle  as  a  substitute  for  the  sun.  Our 
ministry  is  all  darkness,  emptiness,  and  impotence  ; 
all  condemnation  to  us,  all  delusion  to  those  who 
hear  us,  all  dishonor  to  the  grace  of  God,  whatever 
the  breath  of  man  may  say  of  it,  except  as  it  is 
.pervaded,  illumined,  filled  with  the  testimony  of 
Christ  as  once  the  sacrifice  for  sin,  crucified  and 
slain ;  now  the  glorified  and  ever-living  intercessor 
for  all  that  come  unto  God  by  him. 

There  are  many  ways  of  approaching  more  or  less 
to  that  attainment  without  ever  reaching  it.  Some 
of  the  most  common  we  will  endeavor  to  state  : 

It  is  very  possible  to  preach  a  great  deal  of  import- 
ant religious  truth,  and  so  that  there  shall  be  no  ad- 
mixture of  important  error  in  doctrine  or  precept — 


THE   WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST.  11 

yea,  truth  having  an  important  relation  to  Christ  and 
his  office,  and  yet  not  to  preach  Christ.  The  defect 
will  be  not  in  the  presence  of  what  should  not  be 
there,  but  in  the  absence  of  what  should  be,  of  that 
which  is  necessary  to  give  all  the  truth  delivered,  the 
character  of  "  truth  as  in  Jesus"  Such  absence,  when 
nevertheless  all  is  true,  may  be  more  destructive  to 
the  Gospel  character  of  the  preaching,  than  even  the 
introduction  of  some  positive  error.  The  preaching 
may  be  very  earnest.  It  may  contain  much  that  is 
affecting  and  deeply  impressive — •  strong  emotions 
may  be  stirred  in  the  hearers.  The  earnest  enquiry 
may  be  excited — what  must  we  do  ?  And  yet,  the 
preaching  may  wholly  fail  in  giving  any  such  dis- 
tinct answer  to  that  question,  as  will  turn  the  atten- 
tion of  the  enquirer  to  Christ  as  all  his  refuge.  We 
may  say  a  great  deal  about  and  around  the  Gospel 
and  never  preach  the  Gospel.  Religious  truths  are 
not  the  Gospel,  except  in  proportion  as,  like  John 
the  Baptist,  they  point  to  the  Lamb  of  God.  For 
example — suppose  you  preach  on  the  vanity  of  the 
world  ;  the  uncertainty  of  life  ;  the  awfulness  of 
death  unprepared  for ;  the  tremendous  events  of  the 
judgment-day ;  the  little  profit  of  gaining  the  whole 


12  THE   WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST. 

world  and  losing  the  soul ;  suppose  you  enlarge  on 
the  necessity  and  blessedness  of  a  religious  life,  and 
the  happiness  of  the  saved*.  Does  it  follow  that 
you  have  preached  the  Gospel,  or  any  part  of  it  ? 
If  deep  impressions  are  made,  and  serious  enquiries 
excited,  does  it  follow  that  Christ  is  preached  ? 
Such  topics  unquestionably  belong  most  legitimately 
to  our  ministry ;  they  are  important  parts  of  the 
truth  given  us  to  enforce ;  but  they  are  entirely 
subordinate  and  preliminary.  They  are  not  the 
distinctive  seed  of  the  word  from  which  God  has 
ordained  that  newness  of  life  shall  spring.  They 
are  rather  the  plough  and  the  harrow  to  open  and 
stir  the  ground,  that  it  may  receive  the  seed  of  life. 
You  may  spend  all  your  time  in  such  work — not 
omitting  to  sprinkle  your  discourses  with  the  oft- 
repeated  name  of  Christ  and  with  much  Gospel 
language ;  and  just  because  there  is  no  pervading 
exhibition  of  Christ,  in  his  work  of  Justification  by 
his  righteousness  and  of  Sanctification  by  his  Spirit, 
given  so  pointedly  and  plainly  that  whosoever  will 
may  understand,  you  may  never  attain  to  the  honor, 
in  the  sight  of  God,  of  teaching  and  preaching  Jesus 
Christ,  whatever  the  estimate  of  those  who  have  not 


THE   WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST.  13 

learned  to.  discriminate  between  truth  that  is  re- 
ligious, and  truth  that  is  not  only  religious,  but  dis- 
tinctively gospel- truth ;  who  know  not  the  difference 
between  such  preaching  as  makes  the  hearer  feel 
some  spiritual  want,  and  that  which  tells  him  what 
he  wants  and  where  and  how  he  is  to  find  it.  The 
hearer  who  has  learned  Christ,  as  his  lesson  of  heart 
and  life,  of  hope  and  peace,  and  knows  nothing  as 
precious  to  his  soul,  but  as  it  leads  him  to  Jesus,  on 
the  cross  of  sacrifice  and  on  the  throne  of  inter- 
cession, Jesus  in  his  invitations  and  promises,  Jesus 
in  his  grace  to  help,  his  righteousness  to  clothe,  and 
his  power  to  sanctify,  will  feel  that  in  all  that  minis- 
try "  one  tiling  is  needful" — and  that  one  thing,  the 
very  thing  on  which  all  its  character  hinges, — • 
CHRIST. 

But  let  us  advance  a  little  further.  You  may 
preach  with  faithfulness  and  plainness  the  strictness 
and  holiness  of  the  law,  how  it  enters  with  its  re- 
quirements into  all  the  thoughts  and  affections  of 
the  heart,  pronouncing  condemnation  on  the  sinner, 
and  bringing  us  all  in  guilty  before  God.  There 
may  be  no  shrinking  from  the  fullest  exposition  of 
the  Scriptures  concerning  the  end  of  the  impenitent. 


14  TEffe  WORK   OF  PEEACHING   CHRIST. 

Still  more  :  the  office  of  Christ  as  the  onjy  Saviour, 
and  his  merits  as  the  only  plea,  may  be  introduced 
not  unfrequently,  and  yet  may  there  be  a  great 
lack  of  such  distinct  setting  forth  of  Christ  —  such 
holding  up  of  Christ  crucified,  as  Moses  lifted  up 
the  serpent  in  the  wilderness  before  the  dying 
Israelites  for  all  to  see  and  live — such  presentation 
of  God's  great  remedy  for  every  man's  necessities, 
as  belongs  to  the  consistency,  simplicity  and  fullness 
of  the  work  committed  to  the  minister  of  the  Gos- 
pel. While  speaking  much  of  duty,  the  grace  to 
enable  us  to  do  it  may  not  be  proportionably  pre- 
sented. While  the  penalties  of  sin  may  be  kept  in 
full  view,  the  fullness  and  tenderness  and  earnestness 
of  the  invitations  and  promises  of  Christ  to  the 
•sinner  turning  unto  God,  may  be  very  dimly  ex- 
hibited. That  great  lesson,  which  we  have  need  to 
be  always  studying,  may  have  been  but  little  learned, 
how  to  preach  the  law  as  showing  our  need  of  the 
righteousness  of  Christ,  and  how  to  preach  the  Gos- 
pel as  establishing  and  honouring  the  law  ;  the  one 
to  convince  of  sin  and  condemnation,  the  other  as 
providing  a  deliverance  so  complete  that  to  the 
believer  there  is  no  condemnation  ;  the  one  as  tak* 


THE  WORK  OF  PREACHING   CHRIST.  15 

ing  away  all  pleas  derived  from  ourselves,  the  other 
as  furnishing  a  most  perfect  and  prevailing  plea  in 
the  mediation  of  Christ ;  the  law.  as  giving  the  rule 
of  life,  the  Gospel  as  giving  the  power  of  life,  yea, 
life  from  death,  in  Jesus  Christ ;  the  law  to  humble 
us  under  a  consciousness  of  an  utter  beggary  before 
God ;  the  Gospel  as  directing  us  to  him  in  whom 
it  pleased  the  Father  that  all  fullness  should  dwell. 
Again.  It  may  be  that  doctrine  immediately  con- 
cerning the  Lord  Jesus,  and  bringing  his  person  and 
office  into  view,  may  be  much  introduced.  We  may 
take  opportunity  to  speak  of  his  infinite  dignity  of 
being  ;  the  mystery  of  his  incarnation  ;  the  humili- 
ation and  love  and  grace  of  his  coming  in  our  na- 
ture ;  his  tenderness  and  compassion,  and  power  to 
save  ;  the  perfectness  of  his  example  and  the  depth 
of  his  sufferings.  Indeed,  everything  revealed 
concerning  him  may  at  times  be  found  in  our  teach- 
ing, without  error,  and  in  each  particular,  as  it 
stands  by  itself,  without  serious  defect.  But  there 
may  be  still  an  important  deficiency.  The  propor- 
tion of  truth  may  not  be  kept.  There  is  a  propor- 
tion of  parts  in  the  whole  body  of  gospel  truth  just 
as  there  is  the  same  in  our  own  bodies.  We  must 


16  THE   WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST. 

omit  none  of  the  parts,  but  put  each  in  its  right 
relation  to  all  the  rest.  To  fail  in  this,  so  that 
wliilo  we  embrace  all  we  deform- all,  by  a  dispropor- 
tionate exaltation  of  some,  and  depression  of  others, 
may  be  just  as  destructive  of  the  gospel  character 
of  our  ministry,  just  as  confusing  and  misleading,  as 
if  we  omitted  some  truths,  and  p*erverted  others. 
For  example,  you  may  preach  Christ  in  various  as- 
pects ;  but  Christ  crucified,  the  great  sacrifice  of 
propitiation,  though  not  omitted,  may  not  have  that 
high-place,  that  central  place,  that  all-controlling 
place,  that  place  of  the  head-stone  of  the  corner, 
which  is  necessary  to  its  right  adjustment  to  all 
parts  of  the  system  of  faith.  You  may  preach  the 
Incarnation  of  Christ  in  all  its  truth  as  a  separate 
event,  and  yet  in  great  error  as  regards  its  relation 
to  other  events,  making  it  so  unduly  prominent  that 
his  death  shall  be  made  to  appear  comparatively 
subordinate  and  unessential  —  the  means  exalted 
above  the  end — the  preparation  of  the  body  of 
Christ  for  sacrifice,  being  made  of  more  importance 
and  more  effective  in  our  salvation  than  his  offering 
of  that  body  on  the  cross.  But  the  great  Sacrament 
which  we  carry  with  us  all  the  way  of  our  journey, 


THE  WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST.  17 

as  our  great  confession,  and  joy  and  glory,  is  to 
show,  as  oft  as  we  eat  that  bread  and  drink  that 
cup,  not  the  lord's  birth,  but  "  the  Lord's  death  until 
he  come." 

You  may  preach  all  of  Christ's  work  as  well  as 
person,  and  all  in  due  proportion  of  parts,  and  yet 
some  other  vital  truth  essentially  connected  may  be 
so  disproportionately  presented  as  to  create  in  the 
whole  a  most  important  defect.  You  have  exhibited 
the  foundation  which  God  hath  laid  in  Zion.  The 
question  remains,  how  the  sinner  is  to  avail  himself 
of  that  foundation.  He  is  to  build  thereon.  But 
How  ?  The  Apostle  answers,  "  He  that  believeth  on 
him  shall  not  be  confounded."  We  build  by  faith. 
We  cannot  preach  Christ  without  preaching  on  that 
by  which  we  become  partakers  of  Christ.  Evi- 
dently confusion,  indistinctness,  feebleness,  defici- 
ency there,  must  produce  the  same  effect  throughout 
the  whole  Gospel.  If  faith,  in  its  nature,  office,  effi- 
cacy and  distinctive  operation  and  fruits,  be  kept  in 
a  place  so  obscure,  so  subordinate,  or  taught  so  con- 
fusedly that  either  it  is  wholly  out  of  sight  or  hid  in 
a  crowd  of  other  things  ;  placed  in  the  outer  court 
of  the  temple  instead  of  immediately  by  the  altar 


18  THE   WORK  OF   PREACHING   CHRIST. 

of  sacrifice,  as  the  one  instrumental  grace  by  which 
the  sinner  partakes  of  the  "  Lamb  of  God  ;"  if  the 
works  which  are  its  fruits  be  so  confounded  with 
itself  that  the  grace  by  which  we  are  "  rooted  and 
grounded  "  in  Christ,  is  made  of  no  more  influence 
in  our  participation  of  him  than  the  several  works 
of  righteousness  which  grow  out  of  its  life,  and  fol- 
low upon  the  participation  of  Christ  through  its 
agency,  then  is  the  relative  adjustment  of  truth  most 
seriously  spoiled  and  deformed. 

Lastly,  under  this  head  of  our  inquiry  ;  it  may  be 
fchat  occasionally  in  a  discourse,  now  and  then,  the 
setting  forth  of  Christ  is  satisfactory  in  point  of 
doctrine  and  the  proportion  of  truth.  But  it  may  be 
only  occasionally  thus,  when  the  text  so  obliges,  ac- 
cording to  rhetorical  propriety,  that  we  cannot  avoid 
it.  But  such  texts  may  not  be  chosen  very  often. 
Passing  from  subject  to  subject,  the  preacher  comes, 
from  time  to  time,  to  one  which  necessarily  leads  to 
the  manifestation  of  Christ,  in  some  leading  feature 
of  his  grace  and  salvation,  and  then  all  may  be  well 
done  and  calculated  to  enlighten  a  mind  hungering 
for  the  truth.  But,  meanwhile,  you  may  hear  many  a 
discourse  which  contains  scarcely  more  of  anything 


THE  WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHEIST.  19 

distinctive  of  the  Gospel,  or  pertaining  to  Christ,  ex- 
cept perhaps  his  name  sometimes  introduced,  than  if 
it  were  some  other  religion  than  Christ's  of  which  the 
preacher  is  the  minister.  And  in  the  general  course 
of  his  work  we  may  look  in  vain  after  that  evident 
fondness  of  heart  for  views  which  most  intimately 
and  directly  look  unto  Jesus  ;  that  habitual  feeding 
of  the  flock  in  pastures  watered  by  the  river  that 
proceec(eth  out  of  the  throne  of  God  and  the  Lamb  ; 
that  strong  tendency,  when  subjects  not  directly  tes- 
tifying of  Christ  must  be  handled,  to  keep  them  as 
near  to  him  as  possible,  and  to  return  from  them  as 
soon  as  possible  to  others  of  a  nearer  neighborhood 
to  the  cross ;  that  desire  to  illuminate  all  subjects 
with  light  from  "  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ/7  which 
proves  the  preacher's  determination  "  to  know  noth- 
ing among  men,  but  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified." 
We  miss  that  habitualness  of  the  testimony  of 
Christ,  that  special  love  for  all  the  region  round 
about  Gethsemane  and  Calvary,  the  atonement  and 
the  intercession,  and  the  great  gifts  of  the  Spirit 
purchased  thereby  ;  we  miss  that  constant  tracing 
of  all  spiritual  life  and  consolation,  in  its  every  influ- 
ence and  fruit,  to  Christ  as  the  life,  and  that  careful 


20  THE  WORK   OF  PREACHING   CHRIST. 

binding  of  all  spiritual  affections  and  duties  upon 
him  for  support  and  strength,  as  the  vine-dresser 
trains  his  vine  upon  its  trellis,  which  appears  so  re- 
markably in  the  teaching  of  the  Apostles. 

We  have  thus  endeavored  to  indicate  some  of  the 
paths  by  which,  without  delivering  anything  untrue, 
and  while  delivering  much  important  truth,  we  may 
come  short  of  the  duty  under  consideration.  We 
proceed  to  consider  how  we  may  fulfill  it.  What  is 
it  to  preach  Christ  ? 

We  have  a  great  example  in  our  Lord's  own  teach- 
ing. When,  after  his  resurrection,  he  met  the  two 
disciples  on  the  way  to  Emmaus,  and  found  them  in 
such  darkness  and  doubt  concerning  himself,  it  is 
written  that,  "  beginning  at  Moses,  and  all  the  pro- 
phets, he  expounded  unto  them,  in  all  the  Scriptures, 
the  things  concerning  himself :"  the  things  concern- 
ing Himself.  Our  office  as  Christian  ministers,  ex- 
pounding the  Scriptures,  is  to  bring  forth  all  their 
teaching  concerning  that  glorious  One,  Himself.  St. 
Paul  therefore  said  that  he  was  "  separated  unto  the 
Gospel  of  God  concerning  His  Son  Jesus  Christ."* 
To  teach  sinners  to  know  Christ,  and  to  "  count  all 

*  Rom.  i.  1-3. 


THE   WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST.  21 

things  but  loss  for  the  excellency  of  the  knowledge 
of  Him,"  looking  to  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
to  communicate,  through  the  truth  which  we  give 
only  in  the  letter,  that  spiritual  and  saving  knowl- 
edge which  only  God  giveth,  is  the  general  expres- 
sion of  our  duty. 

But  in  the  Gospel  "  concerning  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,"  that  is,  in  the  circle  of  doctrines  and  duties 
and  promises  and  blessings  which  constitute  the 
message  of  great  salvation  in.  him,  there  is,  as  we 
have  already  Mated,  a  system  of  parts  mutually  re- 
lated and  dependent,  all  in  perfect  harmony,  none 
so  obscure  or  remote  as  to  be  of  no  importance  to 
the  right  representation  of  the  whole.  That  system, 
like  that  of  our  sun,  has  a  centre,  by  which  all  the 
parts  are  held  in  place,  from  which  all  their  light 
and  life  proceed,  and  around  which  all  revclve. 
You  cannot  exhibit  the  system  of  truth  and  duty 
till  you  have  made  known  that  central  light  and 
power  ;  nor  can  you  make  known  that  power  in  all 
its  truth,  without  exhibiting  those  surrounding  and 
dependent  parts  of  doctrine  and  precept.  That  cen- 
tral sun  of  light  and  life  is  Christ.  All  of  gospel 
truth  and  duty,  of  consolation  and  strength,  abides 


22  THE  WORK   OF  PREACHING   CHRIST. 

in  Christ — derives  from  Christ,  and  glorifies  Christ 
— and  must  be  so  presented  or  it  is  divorced  from 
its  only  life  and  loses  its  gospel  character.  He  is 
the  True  Vine,  and  all  parts  of  gospel  truth  are 
branches  in  him.  Let  such  truth  be  presented  with- 
out that  connection,  then  its  character  as  truth  may 
remain,  but  its  character  for  "  truth  as  in  Jesus  "  is 
lost.  Its  vitality  is  gone.  Fruit  of  life  in  Christ 
Jesus,  it  cannot  produce.  It  is  just  as  true  and 
important  concerning  truth  as  concerning  men,  that 
"  the  branch  cannot  bring  forth  fruit  except  it  abide 
in  the  vine." 

Xow  what  is  the  best  mode  of  setting  forth  this 
system  of  grace?  Where  shall  we  begin?  Shall 
we  first  take  up  the  elements  of  religion  (the  out- 
sides  of  the  circle ;  reasoning  upward  from  gen- 
eral truths  to  the  more  particular  ;  explaining  and 
enforcing  ordinances  and  institutions  of  the  Church) 
as  our  road  of  approach  to  the  Head  and  Life  of  the 
Church  ;  confining  attention  to  means  of  grace  be- 
fore we  have  directed  our  hearers  to  the  grace  itself 
in  the  great  fountain  head  ;  and  thus  gradually,  and 
after  a  long  process  of  preparatory  work,  arriving 
at  last  at  the  person  and  mission  and  sacrifice  of 


THE  WORK   OF  PREACHING   CHRIST.  23 

Christ  ?  But  we  must  remember  who  they  are  whom 
we  are  thus  keeping  so  long  in  the  cold  and  in  the 
dark.  They  are  sinners  under  the  condemnation  of 
the  law  of  God.  They  are  dying  sinners.  How  brief 
the  time  of  some  of  them  to  learn,  you  know  not. 
You  have  no  time  to  spend  on  preliminaries  before 
you  have  introduced  them  to  the  great  salvation. 
What  they  have  most  need  to  know  is,  He  who  came 
to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost — how  they  may  find  him, 
and  what  are  the  terms  of  his  salvation.  Begin  at 
once  with  Christ — "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  " — is 
the  voice.  There  is  no  light  till  that  light  appears.  The 
icy-bondage  of  the  sinner's  heart  yields  not  till  that 
sun  is  risen.  Astronomers,  when  they  teach  the  solar 
system,  begin  with  the  sun.  Thence,  to  tha  related 
and  independent  orbits,  is  easy.  So  the  apostles 
taught.  See  how,  when  they  had  the  whole  system 
of  the  Gospel,  as  distinguished  from  that  of  the  law, 
to  teach  the  Jews — the  whole  outward  and  visible 
of  the  Christian  Church,  as  well  as  all  the  inward 
and  spiritual  of  the  Christian  life,  all  so  new  and 
strange  and  unpalatable  to  a  people  so  unprepared, 
so  entangled  with  traditionary  aversions  and  deep- 
seated  perversions,  see  how  they  leaped  over  all  pre- 


24  THE   WORK   OF   PEEACHING   CHRIST. 

liminaries  and  began  at  once  with  Christ  and  him 
crucified,  the  sacrifice  of  his  death,  "  and  the  power 
of  his  resurrection."  At  once  they  broke  ground 
and  set  up  the  banner  of  their  ministry  there.  Just 
at  the  point  where  the  pride  of  the  sinner  would 
most  revolt,  and  the  wisdom  of  man  was  most  at 
fault,  and  the  ignorance  of  Jew  and  Gentile  was 
most  complete,  where  the  Jew  saw  only  a  stumbling 
block  and  the  Greek  only  foolishness,  there  they 
opened  their  message.  "  I  delivered  unto  ym,  first 
of  all  (said  St.  Paul),  that  which  I  also  received, 
how  that  Christ  died  for  our  sins  according  to  the 
Scriptures."*  They  could  not  wait  to  root  out  pre- 
judice, plant  first  principles,  approach  the  en- 
trenched power  "  that  ruleth  in  the  children  of  dis- 
obedience," by  the  strategy  of  man's  wisdom,  when 
they  knew  that  Christ  was  the  great  "  power  of  God 
unto  salvation."  At  once  to  open  the  windows  and 
let  in  the  sun  was  their  way  of  giving  light  to  them 
that  sat  in  darkness.  At  once  to  show  the  amazing 
love  of  God  to  sinners  in  not  sparing  His  own  Son, 
but  delivering  him  up  for  us  all,  was  their  way  to 
draw  the  sinner's  heart  to  God.  Human  device 

*  1  Cor.  xv.  3. 


THE   WOKK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST.  25 

would  have  said,  as  it  has  often  said,  in  substance, 
Make  philosophy  prepare  the  way.  Clothe  your 
teaching  in  robes  of  man's  wisdom.  Keep  back  the 
offence  of  the* cross  till  you  have  first  conciliated  the 
respect  of  your  hearers  by  a  show  of  human  learning 
and  reasoning.  And  when  your  master  must  be 
preached  directly,  don't  begin  at  his  death.  Speak  of 
his  life,  its  benevolence,  its  beauty.  Compare  his 
moral  precepts  with  those  of  heathen  sages.  Christ 
as  the  example  and  the  teacher,  is  your  great  theme. 
"  No  (said  St.  Paul),  lest  the  cross  should  be  of  none 
effect,"  "  that  your  faith  should  not  stand  in  the 

wisdom  of  men,  but  in  the  power  of  God.'7     They 

• 
remembered  the  words  of*  their  Lord,  "  I,  if  I  be 

lifted  up,  will  draw  all  men  unto  me."  Lifted 
up  in  the  cross  he  had  now  been.  Lifted  up  as 
Christ  crucified  for  us,  in  the  sight  of  the  whole 
world,  by  the  ministry  of  the  Gospel  he  was  next  to 
be.  Such  was  God's  argument  with  sinful  men. 

They  believed  and  therefore  preached.  God  gave 
the  increase,  and  wonderful  was  the  harvest. 

Thus,  dear  brethren,  we  have  our  lesson.  We 
must  begin  as  well  as  end  with  Christ,  and  always 
abide  in  him,  for  the  life  and  power  of  our  ministry, 
2 


26  THE   WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST. 

just  as  for  the  peace  and  joy  of  our  own  souls.  But 
having  thus  begun,  what  remains  ?  It  is  the  revealed 
office  of  the  Holy  Gliost,  as  the  Sanctifier  and  the 
Comforter,  to  glorify  Christ.  "  He  shall  glorify 
me/7  said  the  Lord.  But  how  ?  "  He  shall  take  of 
mine,  and  show  it  unto  you."  It  is  our  office  also, 
under  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  glorify  Christ 
in  all  his  person  and  relations  to  us,  and  by  the  same 
method,  namely,  to  take  of  what  pertains  to  him  and 
slioiv  it  unto  men.  Whatever  pertains  to  him,  we 
are  to  show.  We  must  *'  expound  in  all  the  Scrip- 
tures the  things  concerning  himself."  Of  those 
things  we  will  attempt  a  brief  sketch  and  outline, 
but  it  must  be  only  the  merest  outline,  and  that- very 
imperfect. 

We  must  preach  Christ  in  regard  to  the  glory  of 
the  Godhead  which  lie  had  with  the  Father  before 
the  world  was.  We  cannot  exhibit  the  death  of  the 
cross  to  which  he  became  obedient,  without  consid- 
ering the  infinite  majesty  of  the  throne  •from  which 
he  descended.  We  must  ke.ep  the  connection  which 
the  apostle  has  given-  us  between  the  glory  of  our 
Lord  before  he  came  in  the  flesh,  and  his  humilia- 
tion in  the  flesh.  You  remember  that  "  he  became 


THE   WORK   OF   PREACHING    CHRIST.  27 

obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the  cross"  is 
introduced  by  "  being  in  the  form  of  God,  he  thought 
it  not  robbery  to  be  equal  with  God"* 

In  the  same  connection  is  the  Incarnation  and 
Birth  of  our  Lord.  Very  near  are  the  mysteries  of 
Bethlehem  to  those  of  Calvary.  We  cannot  tell 
how  Jesus  bore  our  sins,  without  telling  how  he 
took  our  nature.  To  show  that  he  could  stand  in 
man's  place  under  the  law,  we  must  show  that  he 
was  made  very  man.  Hence,  in  the  apostle's  ac- 
count, between  the  form  of  God  from  alt  eternity 
and  the  obedience  unto  death,  the  connecting  event 
is,  "  he  was  made  in  the  likeness  of  man."  We  must 
take  care  that  in  a  just  zeal  for  his  divinity  we  do 
not  impair  or  put  in  a  place  of  comparative  unim- 
portance his  humanity.  The  one  is  as  essential  to  the 
Gospel  as  the  other — the  perfect  man  as  the  perfect 
God.  Our  confession  glories  as  much  in  the  Word 
"  made  flesh,"  as  in  the  truth  that  the  same  Word 
"  was  God.'7  In  beholding  and  showing  the  great 
salvation,  we  are  to  consider  as  of  equal  necessity 
thereto  "  the  Man,  Christ  Jesus,"  and  that  he  was,  and 
is,  "  Jehovah  our  Righteousness."  In  the  earliest 

*  Phil.  ii.  6-8. 


28  THE   WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST. 

ages  of  Satan's  attack  upon  the  integrity  of  the 
gospel,  the  heresies  did  not  more  assail  the  essential 
divinity  than  the  real  humanity  of  Christ ;  knowing 
that  if  he  were  not  perfect  man,  the  sacrifice  for 
man's  sins  were  as  unavailing  as  if  he  had  been  only 
man.  The  assaults  of  these  present  times  are  indi- 
cative, we  think,  of  the  same  strategy.  How  care- 
fully and  minutely  do  the  Scriptures  exhibit  our 
Lord  as  man  in  all  that  is  of  man,  while  at  the  same 
time  we  are  made  to  behold  his  glory,  "  as  of  the 
only  begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth." 
"  In  the  fullness  of  time,  God  sent  forth  His  Son, 
made  of  a  woman,"  that  in  all  time  and  to  all  eter- 
nity he  might  be  "  made  unto  us  of  God,"  through 
his  death,  "  wisdom,  and  righteousness,  and  sanctifi- 
cation  and  redemption." 

In  setting  forth  our  Lord's  atoning  death,  we 
must  keep  in  full  view  his  perfect  life — that  suffer- 
ing life  between  the  cradle  and  the  cross,  in  which 
his  obedience  to  the  law,  completed  by  the  endur- 
ance of  its  curse  for  us,  was  all  wrought  out.  He 
was  the  Lamb  without  spot,  that  he  might  be  the 
sacrifice  all-sufficient.  It  was  his  meetness  as  the 
purchase-price  of  our  redemption,  and  at  the  same 


THE  WORK   OF 

time  the  pattern  of  the  mind  wWi£!2i3sLke- irt'us  to 
make  us  meet  to  be  partakers  of  "that  redemption. 
Christ  our  example  of  holiness  is  a'  most  important 
part  of  the  setting  forth  of  Christ  as  our  foundation 
of  hope.  There  was  one  hour  in  his  life  for  which  he 
came  into  this  world  ;*  but  every  hour  while  he  was 
in  this  world,  as  leading  to  that,  exhibited  the  mind 
that  was  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  which  must  be  also  in 
us.  In  preaching  Christ  crucified,  let  us  take  care 
that  we  avoid  the  mistake,  not  unfrequently  made,  of 
terminating  our  representation  almost  entirely  with 
the  crucifixion — as  if  the  slaying  of  the  sacrifice 
completed  the  oblation  of  the  sacrifice ;  forgetting 
the  office  of  the  High  Priest  to  enter  within  the  veil 
with  the  blood  of  srJrinkling,  carrying  the  sacrifice 
before  the  mercy-seat,  there  to  appear  in  the  pres- 
ence of  God  for  us,  and  thus  to  "  obtain  eternal  re- 
demption for  us."  "  Christ  crucified ;?  is  not  merely 
Christ  on  the  cross,  but  Christ  also  "  on  the  right 
hand  of  the  throne  of  God,"  as  having  "  endured  the 
cross."  ThaJ  throne  is  called  "  the  throne  of  the 
Lamb,"  and  the  redeemed  in  heaven  are  represented 
as  praising  "  the  Lamb  that  was  slain"  The 

*  John  xii.  23,  and  xvii.  1. 


30  THE  WORK  OF  PREACHING   CHRIST. 

preaching  of  Christ  crucified  goes  necessarily  into 
all  that  Christ  did  and  obtained  for  us  after,  and  in 
consequence  of^  his  crucifixion.  The  Resurrection, 
Ascension,  and  Exaltation  to  head-ship  over  all 
things,  are  great  themes,  vitally  associated  with 
what  immediately  preceded  them,  forming  the  essen- 
tial connection  between  what  was  finished  "  once  for 
all "  when  Jesus  died,  and  what  is  yet  to  be  finished 
"  for  all  that  come  unto  God  by  him/7  now  that  he 
"  ever  liveth."  We  must  preach  Christ  in  his  ever 
living  intercession — Christ  the  High  Priest  above 
with  the  incense  and  Hie  blood,  or  we  leave  incom- 
plete the  view  of  Christ  crucified.  When  he  cried 
"It  is  finished"  and  "  gave  up  the  ghost,"  it  was  the 
slaying  of  the  sacrifice  ;  it  wSs  the  suffering  of  the 
Lamb  of  God  for  us  ;  it  was  the  being  "  made  a 
curse  for  us,"  that  was  then  finished.  "  There  re- 
inaineth  no  more  sacrifice  for  sin  ;"  but  there  does 
remain  the  perpetual  oblation  of  the  one  finished 
sacrifice.  Our  hope  stops  not  at  the  cross,  but  "  en- 
tereth  to  that  within  the  veil  whither  iesus  our  fore- 
runner is  also,  for  us,  entered,  made  a  High  Priest 
after  the  order  of  Melchizedek."  Thither,  there- 
fore, our  ministry  must  also  enter.  Too  often  does 


THE   WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST.  31 

• 

what  otherwise  is  well  as  gospel  preaching  come 
short  of  that  mark.  Our  preaching  follows  Christ 
in  his  resurrection,  and  perhaps  in  his  ascension  ; 
but  do  we  sufficiently  place  before  the  faith  of  the 
sinner,  for  his  prayers  and  his  hopes  to  rest  on,  for 
his  consolation  and  peace  to  drink  of  when  he  strives 
to  come  unto  God,  Jesus  as  now  the  glorious  Inter- 
cessor— showing  in  his  hands  tire  print  of  the  nails 
of  the  crucifixion,  and  bearing  in  his  heart  all  the 
necessities  of  every  believer  ?  When  we  exhort  to 
the  running  the  race  with  patience  "looking  unto 
Jesus"  do  we  sufficiently  direct  the  eye  of  the  hearer 
to  Jesus,  the  glorified,  in  his  present  office  and  work 
for  us  ?  Remember,  that  when  the  apostle  said, 
"  He  is  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost,"  he  added,  as 
the  essential  evidence,  "seeing  he  ever  liveth  to 
make  intercession  for  us" 

I  must  not  pass  from  this  immediate  neighborhood 
of  the  great  sacrifice,  without  a  few  words  about  its 
nature.  To  speak  of  it  as  a  sacrifice  for  sin  in  such 
general  terms  only  as  leave  room  for  the  most  un- 
real, figurative  and  accommodated  sense,  is  to  come 
far  short  of  our  duty  and  of  what  the  special  ten- 
dency of  error  in  these  days  demands.  When  we 


32  THE   WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST. 

• 

administer  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  we 
"  show  the  Lord's  death"  Let  us  take  care  that  when 
we  show  the  same  in  words,  we  do  not  come  short  of 
the  teaching  of  the  Sacrament.  Our  church  inter- 
prets that  teaching  with  studied  precision,  in  her 
communion  office,  in  reference  to  errors  prevalent 
when  that  office  was  framed.  She  calls  the  sacrifice  "  a 
full,  perfect  and  sufficient  sacrifice,  oblation  and  satis- 
faction for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world."  She  teaches 
us  to  pray  for  remission  of  sins  through  faith  in  the 
Mood  of  Christ.  We  must  imitate  that  precision 
in  reference  to  errors  now  propagated.  Besides  the 
perfectness  and  sufficiency  of  the  sacrifice,  in  opposi- 
tion to  those  who  would  add  to  it,  we  must  insist 
strongly  and  pointedly  on  its  strictly  propitiatory 
and  vicarious  nature,  in  opposition  to  those  who 
would  destroy  it.  Under  such  strong  texts  as 
"  Christ  hath  redeemed  us  from  the  curse  of  the 
law,  being  made  a  curse  for  us  ;"*  "  He  hath  made 
him  to  be  sin  for  us,  who  knew  no  sin,"t  we  must 
teach  Christ  as  standing  literally  in  our  stead  under 
the  condemnation  of  our  sins  ;  all  our  guilt  laid  upon 
him  ;  he,  the  condemned  one  for  us,  that  we  might 

*  Gal.  iii.  13.  f  2  Cor-  v-  21. 


THE  WORK  OF  PREACHING   CHRIST.  33 

be  accounted  the  righteous  in  him.  I  see  not  how 
we  can  come  short  of  such  a  sacrifice  and  yet  preach 
Christ  crucified,  according  to  the  Scriptures.* 

Closely  allied  to  our  Lord's  priesthood,  offering 
the  perpetual  oblation  of  his  sacrifice,  is  his  office  as 
the  great  Prophet  and  Teacher  of  his  Church.  "  In 
him  are  hid  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowl- 
edge." He  is  "made  unto  us  of  God,  wisdom"  as 
well  as  "  righteousness."  Christ  crucified  is  Christ 
the  Light  as  well  as  the  Life.  To  his  invitation, 
"  Come  unto  me  and  I  will  give  you  rest,"  is  joined 
the  precept,  "  learn  of  me"  The  g^eat  subject  of 
saving  learning  is  Christ  himself,  and  he  is  the  only 
effectual  teacher  of  that  learning.  They  that  have 
"  learned  Christ,"  so  as  truly  to  know  him,  are  de- 
clared to  have  "  been  taught  by  him  the  truth  as  in 
Jesus."  Whatever  our  advantages  of  human  teach- 
ing, even  of  the  truest  exposition  of  God's  inspired 

*  The  strictly  ntbxtitutionary  character  of  Christ's  sacrifice  for 
our  sins  I  consider  of  the  most  vital  importance  to  be  clearly 
taught,  if  we  would  satisfy  the  language  of  Scripture,  or  do  our 
duty  to  God  and  man.  "  He  wms  made  sin  for  us  ;"  by  which  I 
understand  that  he  stood  for  us  under  tke  law,  by  imputation  of 
our  sins,  bearing  all  our  sins,  and  as  perfectly  identified  and 
charged  with  the^i  as  it  was  possible  for  one  "who  knew  no 
sin"  in  himself  to  be. 

2* 


34  THE   WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST. 

word,  all  is  powerless  spiritually  to  enlighten  us  in 
the  knowledge  of  God  and  of  Christ,  till  he  who 
speaks  as  never  man  spake  shall  add  to  it  the  teaching 
of  his  Spirit,  so  that  we  shall  learn,  not  merely  by  the 
Scriptures,  but  in  them  from  and  of  Him.  Christ 
as  "  the  truth  "  as  well  as  "  the  way"  "  the  wisdom  " 
as  well  as  "  the  righteousness  of  God/7-  the  living 
11  Word  "  as  well  as  the  ever-living  Priest  and  Inter- 
cessor, must  be  showed  in  our  ministry,  if  we  preach 
Christ  crucified,  not  merely  as  once  on  the  cross, 
but  as  now  in  his  glory. 

But  Christ  crucified  is  not  only  "  the  righteous- 
ness of  God  "  and  "  the  wisdom  of  God,"  but  "  the 
power  of  God  unto  salvation.7'  "Him  hath  God 
exalted  to  be  a  Prince"  that  he  may  be  a  Saviour, 
<{  mighty  to  save."  "  Unto  the  Son,  He  saith,  Thy 
throne,  0  God,  is  forever  and  ever,  a  sceptre  of 
righteousness  is  the  sceptre  of  thy  kingdom." 
Christ  as  King,  in  a  glorious  sovereignty  over  all 
things  in  heaven  and  earth,  we  must  declare.  It  is 
the  crowning  aspect  of  Qjbrist,  the  crucified.  It  is 
"  the  THRONE  of  the*  Lamb  that  was  slain"  before 
which  the  multitudes  without  number,  of  the  saved 
in  heaven  are  represented  as  ascribing  "  power  and 


THE   WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST.  35 

riches  and  strength  and  glory  and  honour  and  bless- 
ing." By  his  death  he  purchased,  as  Mediator,  a 
glorious  kingdom  of  redemption.  At  his  ascension, 
he  went  to  receive  it.  There  now  he  reigns  over 
all  his  people  in  earth  and  heaven,  and  over  all  else, 
for  his  people.  When  he  shall  come  again,  it  will 
be  in  the  gWry  of  that  kingdom.  It  was  a  grand 
introduction  to  that  precious  invitation,  "  Come  unto 
me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,"  and  that 
attending  precept,  "  take  my  yoke  and  learn  of  me," 
when  he  sai8  (in  the  verse  nexc  before),  "  AU  things 
are  delivered  unto  me  of  my  Father"* 

It  was  when  he  was  in  the  humiliation  and  suffer- 
ings of  the  cross  that,  as  the  great  King,  he 
stretched  forth  the  sceptre  of  his  power  to  the  mal- 
efactor at  his  side,  and  gave  him  repentance  and 
remission  of  sins,  and  opened  nnto  him  the  kingdom 
of  heaven.  And  now  that,  having  endured  the  cross, 
he  is  set  down  at  the  right  hand  of  the  throne  of 
God,  to  reign  forever  and  ever,  he  hath  all  power 
to  make  good  all  his  promises  to  those  who  receive 
him  and  to  punish  with  everlasting  destruction  those 
who  reject  him.  There  is  no  part  of  our  Te  Deum 

*Mat.  xi.  27. 


86  THE   WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST. 

that  more  animates  the  worship  of  my  heart  than 
these  two  sentences,  "  Thou  art  the  King  of  Glory, 
O  Christ !  "  "  When  thou  hadst  overcome  the  sharp- 
ness of  death,  thou  didst  open  the  t kingdom  of 
heaven  to  all  believers."  It  is  as  King  of  Saints 
that  he  freely  receives  every  sinner  who  seeks  his 
salvation,  writing  the  law  of  his  kifigdom  in  his 
heart,  giving  him  victory  over  the  enemies  of  his 
soul,  making  him  triumphant  in  death,  and  finally 
saying  unto  him  from  his  throne,  "  Enter  thou  into 
the  joy  of  thy  Lord."  It  is  as  Christ  crucified  and 
glorified  and  "  King  of  Saints  "  that  he  utters  that 
promise  of  royal  authority  and  power,  "  To  him  that 
overcometh  will  I  grant  to  sit  with  me  in  my  throne, 
even  as  I  also  overcame  and  am  set  down  with  my 
Father  in  His  throne."  * 

Here  then  is  another  aspect  in  which  we  must  lift 
up  the  Lord  Jesus  in  our  ministry.  We  fnust  not 
let  it  be  forgotten  that,  in  all  the  tenderness  of  his 
invitations  and  promises,  he  speaks  "  as  one  that  hath 
authority,"  not  only  to  make  them  good,  but  to 
punish  their  rejection.  The  invitations  of  his  grace 
are  the  commandments  of  his  throne,  to  be  answered 
*  Rev.  iii.  21. 


THE   WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST.  37 

for  at  his  bar.  Hence,  the  preaching  of  Christ 
crucified  ceases  not  till  it  has  exhibited  "  the  judg- 
ment-seat of  Christ."  It  must  be  noted  that,  when 
the  Apostle  says,  "  Knowing  the  terror  of  the  Lord 
we  persuade  men,"  he  is  speaking  of  the  terror  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  in  his  day  of  judgment.*  That  day 
is  called  "  the  great  day  of  the  wrath  of  the  Lamb"\ 
Why  the  wrath  of  the  Lamb  ?  Why  but  to  keep 
still  in  view  the  great  sacrifice  of  atonement ;  to 
teach  that  Christ  on  the  throne  of  judgment  is 
Christ  that  was  crucified  ;  that  the  chief  question  of 
that  day  will  be,  whether  we  have  accepted  or  neg- 
lected the  great  salvation  purchased  by  his  blood ; 
and  the  chief  terror  of  that  day  will  be  the  ven- 
geance of  that  blood  upon  its  rejection  ?  While  we 
love  to  speak  of  the  blessedness  of  "the  saints  in 
light"  as  "joint  heirs  with  Christ,"  we  can  not  dis- 
charge our  whole  duty  as  preachers  of  Christ,  unless 
we  speak  of  the  heritage  of  those  who  "  receive  his 
grace  in  vain."  We  have  a  most  impressive  exam- 
ple in  St.  Paul,  who,  knowing  nothing  in  his  ministry 
"  but  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified,"  pictured  so  sol- 
emnly that  day  when,  coming  "  to  be  glorified  in  his 
*  2  Cor.  v.  10,  11.  f  Rev.  yi.  17. 


38  THE   WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST. 

saints  and  to  be  admired  in  all  them  that  believe," 
the  Lord  Jesus  "  shall  be  revealed  from  heaven,  in 
flaming  fire,  taking  vengeance  on  them  that  obey  not 
the  gospel,  and  who  shall  be  punished  with  everlast- 
ing destruction  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord  and 
from  the  glory  of  his  power."* 

But  the  preaching  of  Christ  as  the  crucified  ex- 
tends through  all  the  inheritance  of  his  people  for- 
ever and  ever.  It  deserves  your  particular  remark 
how  carefully,  in  many  places,  the  Scriptures,  in 
speaking  of  the  actual  condition  of  the  redeemed  in 
heaven,  and  its  connection  with  the  Lord  Jesus  as 
its  author,  source,  and  substance,  so  speak  of  it  as 
to  keep  not  only  Christ  on  the  throne,  but  Christ 
crucified,  Christ  the  sacrifice,  in  most  conspicuous 
view.  This  is  especially  seen  wherever  he  is  spoken 
of  in  his  glory  as  "  the  Lamb"  which  of  course 
means  the  Lamb  of  sacrifice — the  antitype  of  the 
paschal  lamb  and  of  the  daily  sacrifice  of  the  law ; 
the  fulfillment  of  Isaiah's  prophecy,  "  He  is  led  as 
a  lamb  to  the  slaughter/7  "  wounded  for  our  trans- 
gressions. Thus  the  multitude  which  no  man  can 
number,  who  stand  in  white  raiment  and  with  palms 
*2Thess.  i.  7-10. 


THE  WOKK  OF  PREACHING   CHKIST.  39 

of  victory  before  the  throne,  are  represented  as 
" before  tJie  Lamb"  and  their  adoration  is  in  ascrib- 
ing " salvation  to  the  Lamb"  and  notice  is  carefully 
drawn  to  their  having  "  washed  their  robes  in  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb"  and  all  that  high  communion 
and  blessedness  is  called  "  the  marriage-supper  of 
the  Lamb"  and  in  all  that  dwelling-place  "  the  Lamb 
is  the  light  thereof"  and  he  that  "  feeds  them  and 
leads  them  to  living  fountains  of  water "  is  "  the 
Lamb  which  is  in  the  midst  of  the  throne,"  and  "  the' 
river  of  the  water  of  life,"  representing  their  whole 
felicity,  proceeds  "out  of  the  throne  of  the  Lamb" 
and  the  book  of  citizenship  of  the  New  Jerusalem, 
in  which  are  written  the  names  of  all  that  are  to 
inhabit  there,  is  "  the  book  of  life  of  the  Lamb 
slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world"  *  Most 
evidently  the  intent  of  all  this  is  to  carry  adoring 
thoughts  of  the  sacrifice  of  the  cross  into  our  every 
thought  of  heavenly  happiness,  and  to  represent  the 
heir  of  that  felicity  as  never  forgetting  that  great 
price ;  never  seeing  the  Lord  in  his  glory  without 
seeing  him  as  once  "  crucified  and  slain ; "  never 
ascending  any  height  of  "  the  heavenly  places,"  or 
*  Rev.  xiii.  8  and  xx.  12,  14. 


40  THE  WORK   OP  PREACHING   CHRIST. 

drinking  at  any  stream  of  their  blessedness,  without 
seeing  in  Christ  not  only  "  the  Author  and  the  Fin- 
isher/7 but  all  in  him  as  "  the  Lamb  slain"  as  he 
that  "liveth  and  was  dead"  Christ  the  propiti- 
ation, Christ  crucified.  Atonement  by  sacrifice  is 
written  all  over  the  heritage  of  the  righteous.  It  is 
the  chorus  of  every  song  of  the  saints  in  light.  All 
heaven  echoes  with,"  Unto  him  that  washed  us  from 
our  sins  in  his  own  Hood"  So  must  it  be  in  all 
our  preaching  concerning  the  happiness*  of  the 
saved — Christ  the  purchaser  and  dispenser,  but  the 
glory  of  his  cross  never  separated  from  the  glory  of 
his  throne.  When  we  "  shall  see  him  as  he  is,"  we 
shall  not  cease  to  think  of  him  as  he  was. 

Here  a  word  "about  our  representations  of  what 
is  the  happiness  of  the  redeemed  in  heaven — what 
constitutes  it.  There  is  a  chilling  effect  of  many 
books  and  sermons  on  that  subject — so  much  gener- 
ality, so  little  about  what  the  Scriptures  place  so 
above  all ;  so  much  made  of  the  subordinate  and 
accessory  features,  the  pastures  and  the  flowers  of 
the  heavenly  land,  and  so  little  of  the  Sun  that 
gives  them  all  their  beauty  and  life ;  as  if  you 
should  speak  of  the  garden  of  Eden,  and  make 


THE  WORK   OF  PREACHING   CHRIST.  41 

more  of  what  God  planted  than  of  the  presence 
and  communion  of  God  therein — not  remembering 
what  Paradise  in  all  its  beauty  became  to  man  when 
that  communion  was  withdrawn.  Christ  is  carefully 
to  be  preached,  as  being,  himself,  in  his  glory 
and  communion,  the  heaven  of  his  people ;  as  well 
as,  in  his  humiliation  and  sacrifice,  its  purchase- 
price.  How  striking  is  the  testimony  of  the  Scrip- 
tures to  this  point.  Has  Jesus  gone  away  to  pre- 
pare a  place  for  us  in  his  Father's  house?  His 
promise  is,  "I  will  come  again,  and  receive  you 
unto  myself,  that  where  I  am  there  ye  may  be  also." 
Does  he  pray  his  Father  in  behalf  of  the  happiness 
of  his  people,  the  prayer  is,  "  that  they  may  be  with 
me  where  I  am  and  behold  my  glory."  While  it 
doth  not  appear  what  we  shall  be  "  as  sons  of  God  " 
and  "  joint  Mrs  with  Christ,"  does  St.  John  speak 
of  one  thing  that  we  do  know.  It  is  that  "  we  shall 
be  like  and  see^im  as  he  is."  Does  Jesus  promise  to 
them  that  overcome,  that  they  "  shall  eat  of  the  hid- 
den manna  "  ?  That  .manna  is  himself.  "  I  am  that 
bread  of  life."  Is  heaven  described  as  a  glorious 
city  of  habitation  ?  "  The  Larnb  is  the  temple  "  and 
"  the  light  thereof."  Hath  it  a  river  of  water  of 


42  THE   WORK  OF   PREACHING   CHRIST. 

life,  and  on  either  side  the  tree  of  life  ?  All  that 
river  comes  forth  from  "  the  throne  of  the  Lamb." 
Christ  is  "  the  Finisher  of  our  faith  "  in  this,  that  he 
is,  in  himself,  the  consummation  of  our  hope ;  his 
presence,  his  communion,  his  everlasting  love  be- 
ing the  prize  of  our  high  calling,  and  the  goal  of 
our  race.  We  come  to  him  now,  and  he  is  our 
peace.  We  go  to  be  with  him  forever,  and  he  is  our 
glory.  Ask  the  way  to  heaven  ;  we  say,  Christ. 
Ask  where  heaven  is  ;  we  say,  where  Christ  is. 
Ask  what  heaven  is  ;  we  answer,  what  Christ  is. 
Thus  preach  we  Christ  crucified,  whenever  we  speak 
according  to  the  Scriptures  of  what  constitutes  the 
life  eternal  of  the  sinner  "  redeemed  by  the  blood  of 
the  Lamb." 

But  we  must  take  good  heed,  that  we  do  not  so 
speak  of  our  Lord  in  his  heavenly  pJtar  and  glory 
as  not  to  give  due  place  to  his  ever  present  personal 
ministry,  in  and  to,  his  Church  oifl^barth.  The  im- 
pression is  too  prevalent  that  here  in  our  duties  and 
wants  and  prayers  we  have  only  a  Saviour  and 
helper  afar  off. 

The  precious  assurance  of  the  Scriptures  is,  that 
we  have  a  Saviour  so  near  to  every  one  of  us,  that 


THE  WORK   OF   PREAC 

he  is  "a  very  present  help" — so  prefeatliiiat-  noth- 
ing can  separate  us  from  him  ;  that  nothing  but  un- 
belief ever  intervenes  between  our  wants  and  his 
fullness,  neither  space  nor  time,  nor  unworthiness  nor 
weakness — so  present  that  he  is  ever  at  the  door, — • 
waiting  to  be  received,  or  beneath  our  weakness 
ready  to  be  leaned  on.  No  presence  is  so  "very 
present"  as  that  of  Christ,  in  the  power  of  his  Spirit 
to  every  heart  that  seeks  him — enlightening,  guid- 
ing, comforting,  upholding,  drawing  sinners  to  him- 
self, making  himself  known  to  them,  giving  efficacy 
to  means  of  grace ;  whatever  the  instruments,  He 
the  only  power.  "  I  am  the  good  shepherd."  All  is 
comprehended  in  that  declaration.  As  the  good 
shepherd,  he  is  the  present  shepherd,  so  present  to 
each  of  the  flock  that  he  "calleth  every  one  by 
name  a»d  leadeth  him  out."  Oh,  what  a  help  and 
comfort  it  is  when  we  get  a  full  comprehension  and 
an  abiding  impression  of  that  presence.  How  it 
strengthens  t^e  Minister  of  the  Gospel!  How  it 
lifts  up  the  heart  of  the  Christian  ! 

In  this  connection,  the  faithful  preaching  of  Christ 
will  keep  in  great  prominence,  that  aspect  of  him- 
self which  he  taught  with  such  emphasis,  when  he 


44  THE  WORK  OF  PREACHING  CHRIST. 

spake  of  himself  as  "  the  living  bread — the  bread  of 
God"  of  whom  the  manna  in  the  wilderness  was  the 
type  and  the  bread  of  our  Eucharist  is  the  Sacra- 
ment ;  Christ  the  present  daily  life  of  his  people — 
they  abiding  in  him  by  faith,  he  in  them  by  his 
Spirit ;  all  their  life  as  children  of  God  now — all 
their  hopes  of  life  forever,  depending  on  that  habit- 
ual communion — the  vine  and  the  branches.  The 
more  we  ourselves  enjoy  of  that  abiding,  the  better 
shall  we  know  how  to  teach  it.  Nowhere  does 
mere  book-knowledge  of  what  is  given  us  to  preach 
assist  us  less. 

When  we  speak  of  Christ  as  " the  life"  fulfilling 
the  type  of  the  manna,  let  us  take  care  that  we  set 
in  clear  view,  not  only  our  dependence,  but  His 
freeness.  It  was  one  prominent  aspect  of  that 
"  spiritual  meat"  of  which  "  all  our  fathers"  of  the 
Church  in  the  wilderness  ate,  that  all  classes  and 
conditions  of  people  partook  of  it  alike,  and  all  with 
equal  and  perfect  freeness.  It  lay  «,11  around  the 
camp,  as  accessible  to  one  as  another.  Moses,  nor 
Aaron,  nor*any  priest  or  ruler  had  any  privilege  at 
that  table  which  the  humblest  Israelite  had  not. 
The  priesthood  had  no  office  of  intervention  between 


THE   WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST.  45 

the  hungry  and  that  bread.  Whosoever  will,  let 
Kim  take  and  eat,  was  the  proclamation.  Let  us 
take  good  heed  that  what  we  cannot  deny  in  the 
type  be  not  narrowed  or  concealed  in  the  antitype. 
Our  text  is,  "  Him  that  cometh  to  me,  I  will  in 
no  wise  cast  out"  *  And  I  do  not  know  a  text  that 
contains  more  of  the  essence  of  the  preaching  of 
Christ  in  the  richness  and.freeness  of  his  salvation. 
Oh,  let  us  take  care  that  our  ministry  shall  keep 
full  in  the  sight  of  men  that  open  way,  that  free 
access,  that  directness  of  coming,  not  to  some  mere 
symbolical  representation,  but  to  the  very  present 
Christ,  in  all  his  tenderness  of  love  and  power  to 
save.  Ordinances,  ministers,  are  sadly  out  of  place, 
no  matter  how  divinely  appointed  for  certain  uses, 
when  instead  of  mere  helps  in  coming  to  Christ, 
they  are  made,  in  any  sense,  conditions  or  terms 
of  approach,  so  that  the  sinner  gets  to  Christ  only 
or,  in  any  degree,  by  them.  The  light  of  the  sun 
is  not  more  free  to  every  man  that  cometh  into  the 
world,  than  is  the  salvation  of  Jesus  to  every  be- 
lieving sinner.  It  is  our  business  to  be  continu- 
ally showing  that  precious  truth ;  coming  by  faith, 

*  John  vi.  37. 


46  THE  WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHUIST. 

all  the  condition  ; — Christ,  the  full  and  perfect  sal- 
vation of  all  that  come. 

But  in  the  range  of  gospel  truth,  there  are  sub- 
jects of  instruction,  which  though  not  directly  con- 
cerning his  person  and  office,  are  so  connected  with 
all  right  appreciation  of  his  saving  grace  that  we 
cannot  keep  them  out  of  view,  without  affecting 
most  injuriously  our  whole  ministry.  Be  it  remem- 
bered that  while  the  cross  with  its  immediate  neigh- 
borhood is  the  metropolis  of  Christianity — all  the 
region  round  about  is  Holy  Land,  more  or  less 
holy  according  to  the  nearness  to  that  "  city  of  our 
God  ;"•"  a  land  of  milk  and  honey/7  "  of  brooks  and 
fountains  of  water/7  intersected  in  all  directions 
with  highways  by  which  pilgrims  to  Zion  approach 
the  desire  of  their  hearts.  It  is  the  office  of  the 
gospel  preacher  to  map  out  that  land ;  to  trace 
those  converging  roads — to  set  up  the  way-marks  to 
the  city  of  Refuge.  Christ  is  not  fully  preached 
when  any  truth  which  teaches  the  sinner's  need  of 
such  a  Saviour — illustrating  his  preciousness  by 
showing  our  ruin  and  beggary  through  sin  dwelling 
in  us  and  bringing  condemnation  upon  us,  is  kept  in 
obscurity.  The  wisdom  of  "  the  scribe,  instructed 


THE   WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST.  47 

unto  the  kingdom  of  God,  to  bring  out  of  his  treas- 
ure things  new  and  old,"  is  found  in  his  omitting 
nothing  connected  with  the  Gospel,  however  remote 
from  the  great  central  truths  and  duties  ;  and  in  his 
giving  to  each  its  portion  in  due  season,  as  well  as  its 
place  in  due  relation. 

For  example  :  Christ  is  "  our  righteousness"  unto 
justification  to  every  one  that  believeth,  so  that  in 
him  there  is  no  condemnation.*  But  we  shall  preach 
him  in  vain,  in  that  light,  unless  we  show  the  sin- 
ner's absolute  need  of  such  righteousness.  We  must 
seek,  under  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  so  to  con- 
vince him  of  sin  that  he  shall  see  himself  to  be  under 
the  condemnation  of  God's  law,  without  excuse  and 
without  hope,  till  he  flees  to  that  refuge.  Blessed 
is  he  whose  ministry  the  Spirit  employs  to  teach 
that  lesson  of  ruin  and  beggary.  It  is  the  threshold 
of  the  way  of  life.  The  text-book  in  that  teaching 
is  the  law — God's  will,  however,  and  wherever  ex- 
pressed. Preached  in  a  spiritual  application  to  the 
secrets  of  the  heart,  not  only  as  the  rule  of  obedi- 
ence but  as  the  condition  of  peace  with  God  to 
every  one  that  is  not  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  on  the 

*  Romans  viii.  1. 


48  THE  WORK  OF  PREACHING   CHRIST. 

perfect  keeping  of  which  all  his  hope  depends.; 
preached  in  view  of  the  salvation  of  Jesus  as  only 
increasing  the  condemnation  so  long  as  it  is  salva- 
tion neglected ;  it  is  the  instrument  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  to  strip  the  sinner  of  self-reliance  and  self- 
justification,  to  humble  him  before  God  under  a 
a  sense  of  guilt  and  ruin, — and  as  a  "  schoolmaster 
to  lead  him  to  Christ  that  he  may  be  justified  by 
faith."  He  that  would  preach  a  full  justification  in 
Christ,  without  works,  must  preach  entire  condemna- 
tion under  the  law,  by  works.  By  the  law  is 
the  knowledge  of  sin  and  hence  the  knowledge  in 
part  of  Christ.  Clear,  unequivocal  statements  of 
the  divine  law ;  the  full  exhibition  of  the  text, 
"  Cursed  is  every  one  that  continueth  not  in  all 
things  written  in  the  book  of  the  law  to  do  them" 
(that  continueth  not  in  all  things  from  first  to 
last  of  life),  thus  carrying  the  sword  of  the  Spirit 
into  the  discerning  of  the  thoughts  and  intents  of 
the  heart,  is  the  special  basis  of  and  preparation  for 
all  saving  knowledge  of  Christ.  The  way  of  the 
Lord  is  prepared  by  that  fore-runner.  How  many 
more  consciences  would  cry  out  for  relief  under  the 
load  of  sin ;  how  much  oftener  would  the  careless 


THE  WORK  OF  PREACHING   CHRIST.  49 

heart  be  awakened  to  seek  mercy  through  Christ, 
were  there  only  a  more  searching  comparison  of  all 
that  is  in  man  with  all  the  holiness  of  the  will  of 
God. 

Again  :  Christ  is  "  made  unto  us  sanctification."* 
But  how  can  we  do  justice  to  so  cardinal  a  truth  of 
God's  grace,  unless  we  do  ample  justice  to  that 
other  great  truth  of  man's  nature  out  of  which  arises 
all  the  need  of  a  sanctifier — the  entire  "  corruption 
the  nature  of  every  man  that  is  naturally  engendered 
of  the  offspring  of  Adam  ?"  t  The  beginning  of  sanc- 
tification  is  to  be  born  again  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
According  to  men's  views  of  the  extent  to  which 
by  nature  they  are  corrupt  and  alienated  from  God, 
will  be  their  views  of  the  spiritual  nature,  necessity 
and  extent  of  that  great  change.  Hence  to  preach 
Christ  in  sanctification,  we  must  preach  man  in  his 
natural  corruption.  The  "  carnal  mind"  is  "  en- 
mity against  God  and  is  not  subject  to  the  law  of 
God  neither  indeed  can  50."  ;f  Let  us  faithfully  ex- 
pound those  words  of  St.  Paul.  We  need  no 
stronger  declaration  as  the  basis  of  the  whole 
superstructure  of  the  need  of  an  entire  inward  regen- 
*  1  Cor.  i.  30.  f  Article  IX.  \  Rom.  viii.  7 

3 


50  THE   WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST. 

eration,  making  the  sinner  a  new  creature  in  Christ 
Jesus — new  in  heart,  new  in  life  and  hope.  That 
this  preaching  of  the  necessity  of  such  new  creature 
is  eminently  the  preaching  of  Christ,  we  have  a 
striking  testimony  in  these  words  of  the  Epistle  of 
the  Ephesians  (chap.  iv.  20-24),  "  Ye  have  not  so 
learned  Christ ;  if  so  be  ye  have  heard  him  and 
been  taught  by  him  the  truth  as  in  Jesus  ;  that  ye 
put  off — the  old  man  which  is  corrupt  according  to 
the  deceitful  lusts,  and  be  renewed  in  the  spirit  of 
your  mind  and  that  ye  put  on  the  new  man  which 
after  God  is  created  in  righteousness  and  true 
holiness.77 

But  how  shall  we  speak  of  so  great  spiritual 
transformation  without  speaking  with  equal  stress 
of  Him  who  produces  it  ?  What  sanctification  is  to 
salvation,  such  is  the  right  teaching  of  the  power 
and  office  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Sanctifier,  the  Spirit 
of  Christ,  and  all  comprehending  gift  of  God.  What 
is  there  in  the  Christian  life,  from  first  to  last,  that 
is  not  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  Is  the  sinner 
convinced  of  sin,  Jesus  sent  the  Spirit  to  do  that 
work.  Is  he  quickened  from  spiritual  death  ?  "It 
is  the  Spirit  that  quicTceneth"  Is  he  born  agaii  ? 


THE  WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST.  51 

He  is  "  born  of  the  Spirit"  Is  he  spiritually  minded  ? 
It  is  because  he  "  minds  the  things  of  the  Spirit. 
Is  he  a  "  follower  of  God,"  as  a  dear  child  ?  It  is  be- 
couse  he  is  "led  by  the  Spirit  of  God"  Hath  he 
an  internal  evidence  of  that  sonship  ?  It  is  because 
the  Spirit  beareth  witness  with  his  spirit.  Is  the 
love  of  God  "  shed  abroad  in  our  hearts  ?"  It  is  "  by 
the  Holy  Ghost  given  unto  us"  Do  we  learn  how 
to  pray  as  we  ought  ?  It  is  because  "  the  Spirit  help- 
cth  our  infirmities"  Are  we  Comforted  with  the 
consolation  of  Christ?  The  Spirit  is  "the  Comforter" 
Are  we  strengthened  in  our  duty  ?  It  is  "  by  the  Spirit 
in  the  inner  man"  Do  we  grow  in  the  knowledge 
of  Christ  ?  Jesus  said  of  the  Holy  Ghost :  "He  shall 
take  of  mine  and  show  it  unto  you"  And  beside 
the  spiritual  resurrection  and  sanctification,  will 
these  vile  bodies  also  rise  ;  will  they  also  be  sancti- 
fied and  made  glorious  according  to  the  glory  of  our 
risen  Lord  ?  It  is  written  that  "  He  shall  quicken 
your  mortal  bodies  by  His  Spirit  that  dwelleth  in 
you"* 

Rightly  to  honor  the  Holy  Ghost  as  He  is  thus 
revealed  in  His  own  inspired  word,  how  important 

*  Rom.  viii.  11. 


52  THE  WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST. 

to  the  faithfulness,  the  fruitfulness  of  our  ministry. 
We  may  so  come  short  of  it — we  may  so  contradict 
it,  that  while  bearing  a  very  reputable  character 
before  men,  we  may  all  the  while  be  "  grieving  the 
Holy  Ghost,"  yea,  even  "  resisting  the  Holy  Ghost." 
How  much  barrenness  in  the  work  of  the  ministry, 
in  making  not  church-members,  but  spiritually  en- 
lightened and  spiritually-minded  followers  of  Christ, 
may  be  ascribed  to  deficiency — negativeness  at 
least,  in  this  great  Apartment  of  our  teaching !  In 
no  part  of  his  work  does  a  minister  more  need  to  be 
taught  of  God  or  to  sit  humbly  at  the  feet  of  Jesus 
to  learn  of  him ;  nowhere  does  a  decline  of  spiritu- 
ality of  mind  so  soon  show  itself  as  here.  In  no 
part  of  our  work  do  we  depend  more  upon  a  decided, 
habitual,  personal  experience  in  our  own  souls  of 
God's  gracious  operation.  It  is  here  that  great  de- 
partures from  the  truth  which  go  on  to  carry  away 
eventually  whole  communities  of  professing  Chris- 
tians into  manifold  and  essential  errors,  almost 
always  secretly  or  overtly  begin  ;  as  it  is  the  final 
construction  of  a  system  from  which  the  personal 
office  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  virtually  if  not  professedly 
excluded,  in  which  they  culminate.  The  Scriptural 


THE  WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST.  53 

description  of  a  spiritual  mind  is,  that  it  "  minds 
the  things  of  the  Spirit."  It  is  equally  the  te^t  of 
a  spiritual  and  evangelical  ministry.  That  which 
specially  tries  our  spiritual  discernment  and  skill  in 
rightly  dividing  the  word  of  truth  is  the  right  ad- 
justment of  means  of  grace  in  their  relation  to  the 
power  of  grace,  of  instruments  of  blessing  to  the  hand 
that  employs  them  and  that  gives  them  all  their  effica- 
cy. The  Spirit  hath  His  instruments.  His  grace  hath 
its  means.  His  great  instrument  in  our  sanctification, 
is  His  own  revealed  Truth,  by  which  he  testifies  of 
and  glorifies  the  Lord  Jesus  in  our  eyes.  Sacra- 
ments are  that  same  essential  truth,  taught  under 
other  signs,  and  sealed  with  a  special  impressiveness. 
The  preaching  of  that  same  truth  by  an  ordained 
Ministry,  is  the  great  instrumentality  of  the  Spirit. 
The  point  of  caution  is,  while  giving  all  due  place  ' 
to  the  instrument  that  we  keep  it  exclusively  in  the 
place  of  a  mere  instrument — of  no  avail  in  itself; 
that  we  treat  it  as  we  treat  the  glass  by  which  we 
seek  to  see  some  distant  star — not  as  an  object  to  be 
looked  at — but  only  as  a  help  to  look  immeasurably 
beyond  and  above  it ;  that  as  the  glass  is  nothing 
without  the  light,  so  the  means  of  grace  are  nothing 


54:  THE  WORK  OF  PEEACHING  CHRIST. 

without  "  the  Spirit  of  grace  ;"  that  all  the  power  is 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  that  power  not  deposited  in 
the  means,  as  we  put  bread  into  the  hand  of  a  dis- 
tributor, so  that  whosoever  receives  the  latter  re- 
ceives the  bread  ;  that  power  never  divorced  from  the 
personal  ministry  of  the  Spirit,  but  applied  directly 
by  Himself  to  each  heart  that  receives  His  grace ; 
He  "  dividing  to  every  man  severally  as  He  will." 
To  speak  of  an  ordinance,  a  sacrament,  any  means 
of  grace,  even  the  Holy  Scriptures  of  truth,  as  if 
they  were  in  any  sense  i\Q  power  unto  salvation,  or 
as  if  they  contained,  whatever  its  original  source, 
the  grace  by  which  we  live  unto  God,  thus  leading 
men  to  look  to  them,  instead  of  only,  by  their  help, 
to  Christ  and  His  Spirit,  is  to  "do  despite  to  the 
Spirit  of  grace." 

The  whole  truth  in  this  connection  is  found  where 
the  Apostle  says  :  "  Who  is  Paul  and  who  is  Apollos, 
but  Ministers  by  whom  ye  believed,  even  as  the  Lord 
gave  to  every  man."*  Instead  of  Paul  and  Apollos, 
read  any  ordinance  or  means  of  grace.  What  are 
they  but  ministrations  of  man  by  help  of  which  ye 
believe,  even  as  the  Lord  giveth  to  every  man. 

*  1  Cor.  iii.  5. 


THE  WORK  OF  PREACHING   CHRIST.  55 

There  is  a  text  which  the  full  and  explicit  preach- 
ing of  Christ  will  be  always  directly  or  indirectly, 
consciously  or  unconsciously,  illustrating.  It  is 
those  verses  in  the  second  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Ephesians,  "By  grace  are  ye  saved,  through 
faith,  and  that  not  of  yourselves  it  is  the  gift  of  God  : 
Not  of  works,  lest  any  man  should  boast.  For  we 
are  His  workmanship,  created  in  Christ  Jesus  unto 
good  works."  Salvation  all  of  grace  only ;  in  its 
origin  in  the  love  of  God ;  in  its  purchase  by  the 
•  blood  of  Christ ;  in  the  first  quickening  of  the  sin- 
ner from  the  death  of  sin  ;  in  all  the  renewal  of  his 
nature ;  in  his  acceptance  through  Christ,  to  the 
peace  of  God  ;  in  his  whole  ability  to  live  as  a  child 
of  God  ;  and  in  his  final  admission  to  the  glory  of 
God — all  of  grace  only — wonderful  grace  ; — but 
through  faith  alone — and  that  faith  itself  a  gift  of 
grace  ;  our  works  in  every  degree  and  aspect  wholly 
excluded  from  the  work  of  saving  us,  though  neces- 
sarily included  as  fruits  of  the  grace  that  does  save 
us — we  being  created  anew  in  Christ  Jesus  unto 
good  works  and  not  in  any  degree  by  good  works — 
first  God's  workmanship  making  us  new  creatures, 
then  our  working  as  so  created  "  unto  good  works 


56  THE  WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST. 

which  God  hath  ordained  that  we  should  walk  in 
them."  "We  preach  such  works,  first,  as  absolutely 
excluded  from  having  any  part  in  procuring  our  Jus- 
tification before  God ;  secondly,  as  essential  fruits 
and  evidences  of  our  having  obtained  such  Justi- 
fication. We  preach  the  office  of  Faith  as  so  vital 
that  only  by  it  are  we  united  to  Christ,  as  living 
stones  built  upon  the  living  head  of  the  corner  ;  and 
the  necessity  of  good  works  as  so  absolute,  that  only 
in  them  can  we  walk  as  God  hath  ordained  and  have 
evidence  that  we  are  true  believers  in  Jesus ;  and 
at  the  same  time  botli  faith  and  works  deriving  all 
being  from  the  Spirit  of  God  and  all  value  and  effi- 
cacy to  salvation  from  the  Righteousness  of  Christ. 
Here  let  me  add  some  few  miscellaneous  ob- 
servations. We  are  bound  to  instruct  the  believer 
in  all  the  privileges  and  consolations  that  are  in 
Christ  that  his  joy  may  be  full.  But  we  must  lay 
equal  stress  on  all  his  obligations,  that  Christ  may 
be  glorified.  Out  of  the  same  wounds  of  the  cross 
come  privilege  and  duty,  promise  and  commandment, 
the  consolation  of  faith  and  the  duty  of  obedience  ; 
and  the  same  preaching  that  leads  to  the  one  must 
alike  insist  on  the  other,  and  on  both  as  necessary 


THE   WORK  OF  PREACHING   CHRIST.  57 

to  our  having  that  rest  which  Jesus  promises.  It  is 
a  great  matter  so  to  preach  the  precepts  of  Christ 
as  to  lead  men  to  embrace  his  promises  ;  and  so  the 
promises  as  to  draw  the  disobedient  to  the  love  of 
his  precepts.  In  all  our  work  we  have  two  great 
sources  of  persuasion,  according  to  the  example  of 
St.  Paul,  namely,  "  We  beseech  you  by  the  mercies 
of  God,"  and  again,  "  Knowing  the  terror  of  the 
Lord,  we  persuade  men  ;"  the  love  of  God  in  Christ 
as  a  Saviour,  and  the  wrath  of  God  in  Christ  as 
Judge  of  quick  and  dead ;  a  cloud  of  light  and  a 
cloud  of  darkness,  each  proceeding  from  the  cross  as 
accepted  or  rejected.  We  must  do  all  in  tenderness, 
but  all  in  faithfulness.  The  whole  counsel  of  God 
embraces  the  fearful  penalty  of  unpardoned  sin  as 
well  as  the  glorious  inheritance  of  the  reconciled  in 
Christ.  The  faithful  preacher  of  Christ  keeps  back 
none  of  it.  While  he  delights  in  the  loving  aspects 
of  his  grace,  he  is  not  ashamed  of  the  severities  of 
his  justice.  He  does  not  indeed  denounce  or  judge. 
It  is  not  for  him  to  command  or  condemn.  His  work 
is  always  to  entreat  and  persuade ;  tenderly,  lovingly, 
patiently,  in  the  mind  of  Christ.  But  persuasion 
has  the  alarming  truths  to  use  as  well  as  the  encour- 
3* 


58  THE  WORK   OP  PREACHING   CHRIST. 

-aging.  That,  "  God  is  a  consuming  fire"  out  of 
Christ,  is  as  much  an  argument  of  persuasion  and 
tenderness,  as  that  in  Christ,  "  God  is  Love."  We 
read  of  " the  goodness  and  severity  of  God"*  We 
must  exhibit  both.  They  interpret  and  enforce  one 
another.  But  how  to  balance  aright  judgment  and 
mercy,  invitation  and  warning,  precepts  of  obe- 
dience, and  promises  of  consolation,  the  tender 
"Come  unto  me  and  1  will  give  you  rest"  with  the 
stern  "Depart  ye  cursed  into  everlasting  fire  "  the 
darkness  and  the  light — the  loving  voice  from  the 
Mercy-seat  and  the  dreadful  sentence  from  the  Judg- 
ment-seat—  all  under  the  duty  of  teaching  and 
preaching  Jesus  Christ,  is  not  learned  from  books 
only,  is  not  given  by  specific  rule,  comes  chiefly  out 
of  the  state  of  the  heart,  under  the  general  light 
of  the  Scriptures,  and  by  a  careful  endeavor  to  learn 
of,  and  be  like,  him  of  whom  it  is  beautifully  written 
that  he  hath  "  the  tongue  of  the  learned  to  know 
how  to  speak  a  word  in  season  to  him  that  is 
weary."t 

Prom  all  that  has  now  been  said,  it  appears  how 
mistaken  is  the  idea  that  by  confining  our  preach- 

*  Rom.  xi.  22.  f  Isaiah  1.  4. 


THE  WOKK  OF  PREACHING   CHRIST.  59 

ing  to  Christ  and  him  crucified  we  have  a  very  nar- 
row range  of  truth  to  expatiate  in.  In  reality,  we 
have  the  whole  vast  range  of  natural  and  revealed 
religion.  A  wider  field  no  preacher  can  find  who 
does  not  seek  it  beyond  the  confines  of  religious 
truth.  The  difference  between  the  man  who  con- 
fines himself  to  the  preaching  of  Christ  and  him  who 
does  not,  need  not  be  that  the  latter  embraces  any 
portion  of  divine  truth — of  doctrine  or  duty,  of  his- 
tory or  prophecy  or  precept  which  enters  not  into 
the  range  of  the  former.  It  may  be  wholly  a  differ- 
ence in  the  mode  of  presenting  precisely  the  same 
truth — a  difference  in  the  bearings  ;  in  the  relations 
assigned  to  every  part ;  in  the  cardinal  points  to 
which  all  is  adjusted  ;  in  the  polarity,  so  to  speak, 
which  governs  such  manifestation  of  truth  as  de- 
serves the  name  and  praise  of  the  preaching  of 
Christ.  You  may  take  truth  from  the  immediate 
neighborhood  of  the  cross,  or  from  the  farthest 
boundaries  of  the  domain  of  Christianity,  and  when 
its  just  relation  to  Christ  and  his  redemption  is  ex- 
hibited Christ  is  preached.  Thus  there  is  no  reason 
why,  in  the  most  faithful  ministry,  there  may  not  be 
abundant  variety  of  topic  and  of  instruction.  The 


60  THE   WORK   OF  PREACHING   CHRIST. 

sermon  may  be  always  shining  in  the  light  of  our 
glorious  Lord,  while  receiving  it  either  by  direct 
looking  unto  him,  or  indirectly  from  secondary  ob- 
jects which,  as  satellites  of  the  sun,  revolve  around 
him  and  shine  in  his  glory.  The  sermon,  in  all  its 
spirit  and  tendency,  may  say,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of 
God"  and  yet  the  view  may  be  as  changing  as  the 
positions  from  which  it  is  taken,  the  circumstances 
which  influence  it,  the  lights  and  shadows  of  the 
several  conditions  and  necessities  of  the  minds  be- 
fore which  it  is  placed.  In  general  we  may  say 
that,  as  no  subject  is  legitimate  in  the  preaching  of 
a  minister  of  Christ  that  does  not  admit  of  being 
presented  in  some  important  relation  to  Christ  ;  so 
no  sermon  is  evangelical  that  does  not  truly  exhibit 
such  relation,  giving  him  the  same  position  to  the 
whole  discourse  that  he  holds  in  the  Scriptures  to 
the  whole  body  of  truth  therein.  As  some  subjects 
have  a  much  nearer  and  more  vital  relation  to  him 
than  others,  they  will  be  much  the  most  frequent 
and  engrossing  in  the  preaching  of  a  faithful  Chris- 
tian minister.  The  great  truths,  the  great  facts,  the 
great  duties  and  privileges  and  interests  and  conso- 
lations which  proceed  the  most  directly  from  the 


THE  WORK  OF  PEE  ACHING  CHRIST.  61 

person  and  office — the  death  and  intercession  of 
Christ  and  the  worfc  of  the  Holy  Spirit — as  well  as 
those  which  lead  the  most  immediately  thereto,  will 
be  so  habitually  the  subjects  of  his  preaching,  that 
the  more  remote  and  indirect  will  be  only  occa- 
sional, exceptions  to  the  standing  rule  and  habit. 
And  which  of  these  classes  of  subjects  his  mind  and 
heart  most  delight  in,  and  ^hich  draw  forth  the 
deepest  earnestness  and  the  strongest  emotions  of 
his  soul,  will  not  be  doubtful. 

We  have  now  exhibited  as  much  of  our  great  and 
wide  subject  as  we  could  with  any  propriety  occupy 
your  time  with.  You  will,  of  course,  understand 
that  we  have  not  attempted  to  embrace  the  whole 
field.  What  has  been  attempted,  we  are  deeply 
conscious  is  most  imperfect  and  inadequate.  Still, 
we  have  not  withheld  our  best  endeavors,  where 
even  St.  Paul  exclaimed,  "  Who  is  sufficient  for  these 
things!"  We  conclude  with  a  brief  view  of  the 
state  of  mind  and  spirit  which  qualifies  a  minister 
to  be  a  faithful  preacher  of  Christ. 

1.  A  spirit  of  Faith.  I  mean  Faith  not  merely 
in  such  of  its  exercises  as  make  the  minister  a 
living  Christian,  and  a  growing,  vigorous  Christian ; 


62  THE  WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST. 

but  in  that  special  exercise  which  enables  him  to 
go  on  patiently,  persistently,  l^>efully,  immovably, 
preaching  the  Gospel  as  we  have  seen  the  Apostles 
preached  it,  in  like  simplicity  and  spirituality — with 
as  little  of  the  devices  and  ^mixtures  and  dilutions 
and  subterfuges  of  man's  wisdom,  no  matter  what  the 
obstacles  or  what  the  apparent  fruitlessness — believ- 
ing it  is  God's  own  way,  to  which  alone  His  blessing 
is  promised  and  which  He  ivill  bless  as  his  own 
"wisdom  and  power  unto  salvation."  It  was  pre- 
cisely with  such  meaning  that  St.  Paul,  just  after 
he  had  pronounced,  "We  preach  not  ourselves, 
but  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord  " — and  just  after  he  had 
adverted  to  the  fact  that  such  preaching  failed  to 
open  the  eyes  of  many  that  heard  saying  "  If  our  Gos- 
pel be  hid,  it  is  hid  to  them  that  are  lost,  in  whom  the 
god  of  this  world  had  blinded  the  minds  of  them 
which  believe  not."*  It  was  in  full  view  of  all 
whom  their  preaching  did  not  succeed  in  convincing, 
but  only  made  the  more  hardened  and  hopeless,  that 
tie  said,  "  We  believe  and  therefore  speak" t  meaning 
not  only  that  they  believed  what  they  spoke,  but  that 
they  believed  it  was  just  what  God  commanded 

*  2  Cor.  iv.  3,  4.  f  v-  18- 


THE  WORK  OF  PREACHING   CHRIST.  63 

them  to  speak.  And  no  rejection  of  it  by  man  could 
shake  that  confidence  or  lead  them  to  speak  any 
thing  else  or  in  any  other  way.  Well  they  knew 
what  a  "stumbling-block  to  the  Jew/'  and  what 
utter  "foolishness  to  the  Greek/7  was  their  testimony 
concerning  Christ  crucified  ;  but  not  a  word  would 
they  change — "  We  'believe  and  therefore  speak" 
It  was  this  lesson  of  faith  that  Paul  gave  to  Timothy. 
He  warned  him  of  a  time  of  apostacy  approaching — • 
"The  time  will  come  when  they  will  not  endure 
sound  doctrine — and  they  shall  turn  away  their  ears 
from  the  truth  and  be  turned  unto  fables.77  *  How 
then  was  Timothy  to  do  in  such  times?  What 
" sound  doctrine"  meant  in  the  mind  of  St.  Paul,  we 
well  know  —  all  that  way .  of  justification  by  the 
righteousness  of  Christ  imputed  and  of  sanctification 
by  the  Spirit  of  God  imparted  to  the  believer  ;  that 
whole  way  of  life  of  which  the  vicarious  propitiation 
by  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  was  the  central  power  and 
life.  It  was  all  that  doctrine  which  men  would  not 
endure.  And  what  was  Timothy  to  do  ?  Conclude 
that  he,  and  other  preachers  of  Christ,  had  taken 
the  wrong  method  because  thus  unsuccessful  ?  that 

*  2  Tim.  iv.  3,  4. 


64  THE  WORK  OF  PREACHING   CHRIST. 

they  must  find  out  some  other  sort  of  preaching  be- 
cause that  was  so  rejected  ?  Since  men  would  not 
endure  sound  doctrine,  must  he  try  to  get  them  into 
the  church,  or  if  in  the  church  already,  to  make 
them  satisfied  to  stay  there,  by  giving  them  unsound 
doctrine  ?  If  the  truth  caused  them  to  turn  away 
from  it,  must  he  turn  away  from  it  also  and  give 
them  something  else  to  correct  the  evil?  What 
said  the  faith  of  an  Apostle  ?  —  No  compromise  — 
no  accommodation — only  so  much  more  earnestly 
and  continually  that  same  rejected  doctrine.  Hear 
Paul's  remedy!  "I  charge  thee  before  God  and 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  who  will  judge  the  quick  and 
the  dead  at  his  appearing  and  his  kingdom — preach 
the  word  (the  same  offensive  word),  be  instant  in 
season,  out  of  season — reprove,  rebuke,  exhort,  with 
all  long  suffering  and  doctrine."*  The  more  the 
truth  is  turned  away  from,  so  much  the  more 
proclaim  it.  God  will  see  to  the  issue.  "So 
we  preach,  not  as  pleasing  men,  but  God,  which 
trieth  the  heart."  Such  is  the  faith  of  which  we 
are  speaking,  as  of  such  importance  in  our  ministry. 
The  times  which  St.  Paul  predicted,  and  which 

*  2  Tim.  iv.  1,  2. 


THE  WORK   OF  PREACHING   CHRIST.  65 

began  before  Timothy  had  ended  his  labors,  are  yet 
in  being.  We  all  know  how  they  have  been  ex- 
hibited since  the  beginning  of  this  century  ;  in  this 
country,  under  the  name  of  Unitarianism,  and  on  the 
continent  of  Europe,  under  that  of  Rationalism.  And 
we  have  heard  with  amazement  and  grief  how  they 
have  appeared  of  late  in  the  venerable  Church  of 
England,  among  some  of  her  clergy,  in  her  high 
places  of  college  and  pulpit  teaching,  and  how  even 
a  Bishop  takes  the  lead  ;  and  how  while  it  is  mani- 
fest that  he  cannot  endure  the  sound  doctrine  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  therefore  labors  to  destroy  their  au- 
thority, he  dares,  with  a  dishonesty  most  astonishing, 
and  an  effrontery  unexampled,  to  persist  in  holding 
the  office  of  a  Bishop  in  the  Church  of  Christ 
against  the  remonstrance  of  all  his  peers,  and  to 
the  great  disgust  of  right-minded  people.  The  case 
is  singular.  There  were  Bishops  of  the  Romish 
Church  who  under  the  reign  of  infidelity  in  France 
during  the  Revolution,  renounced  the  faith  ;  but  they 
renounced  also  their  office  in  the  Church.  We  have 
a  more  primitive  example.  Judas  Iscariot,  when  he 
had  betrayed  his  Lord,  having  been  "guide  to  them 
that  took  Jesus/7  had  too  much  conscience  left  to 


66  THE  WORK  OF  PREACHING   CHRIST. 

continue  in  his  " apostleship."    "His  Bishopric"  an- 
other took. 

But  perhaps  we  have  adverted  with  more  point 
to  the  case  of  this  English  Bishop  than  his  import- 
ance deserved.  We  were  speaking  of  the  new  as- 
pect of  affairs  among  certain  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land. True,  the  most  prominent  manifestation  is  in 
attacks  on  the  Inspiration  of  the  Scriptures.  But 
let  not  any  suppose  the  ultimate  or  inspiring  object 
to  be  there.  The  citadel  of  truth  and  life  can  not 
be  reached  till  that  outwork  is  reduced.  Atonement 
is  the  final  object.  .Atonement  for  sin  by  the  pre- 
cious blood  of  Christ,  with  all  the  precious  doctrines 
of  salvation  which  reside  therein,  as  branches  in  the 
vine,  and  which  are  dead  and  only  fit  to  be  cast 
away  as  rubbish  the  moment  such  atonement  is 
taken  away ;  That  is  the  doctrine  they  cannot  en- 
dure. That  is  the  truth  from  which  they  turn  away, 
but  which  they  know  is  safe  so  long  as  the  Scrip- 
tures are  the  final  Rule  of  Faith.  Meanwhile  they 
would  counsel  us  to  give  up  the  old  way  of  preach- 
ing Christ,  as  no  doubt  the  best  way  for  the  old 
times,  but  unfit  for  these  times  when  through  mature 
growth  of  man's  wisdom  such  doctrine  is  counted,  just 


^•NIVERSITY) 

THE  WORK  OF  PEE4gHI^  CHRg^-          ^^67 

indeed  as  it'was  by  similar  min^sHh^lKeJilii* times, 
"foolishness"  They  would  have  us  lay  aside  creeds 
and  confessions,  in  order  that  they  who  cannot  en- 
dure the  doctrine  of  Apostles  and  Prophets  may  be 
accounted  Christians  no  less  than  those  who  believe 
and  love  it.  They  would  make  the  Church  so  broad 
that  any  varieties  or  oppositions  of  belief  may  be 
embraced  in  its  communion  and  even  in  its  ministry, 
thus  strangely  sacrificing  gospel-truth  to  church- 
comprehensiveness. 

Now  suppose  such  evil  times  should  visit  us  in 
'our  church — what  must  we  do  ?  I  ask  it  to  illus- 
trate what  I  mean  by  the  faith  of  which  I  am  speak- 
ing. Must  we  preach  the  word,  as  Paul  understood 
it,  any  the  less  ?  Shall  we  suppose  that  to  preach 
Christ  crucified  is  not  as  much  "  the  wisdom  and 
power  of  God,"  as  when  apostles  set  us  the  example? 
Or  shall  we  believe  as  they  believed,  and  therefore 
continue  to  speak  as  they  spoke,  even  though  the 
whole  earth  should  be  covered  with  a  flood  of  apos- 
tacy,  and  men  everywhere  should  be  turned  unto 
fables?  What  says  a  true  faith  in  God?  No 
change,  but  in  more  earnestness  with  the  unchanged. 
"  Preach  the  word  " — the  same  word — "  Instant  in 


68  THE  WORK  OF  PREACHING   CHRIST. 

season,  out  of  season/'  "with  all  long  suffering  and 
doctrine."  Let  patience  have  her  perfect  work.  Be 
not  faithless — but  believing — God's  hand  is  not 
shortened  that  it  cannot  save  by  that  same  word 
now  as  in  the  ancient  times. 

These  observations  are  not  applicable  only  to  cir- 
cumstances which  may  hereafter  exist  among  us. 
Always,  everywhere  in  our  ministry  we  find  those 
calling  themselves  Christians,  or  at  least  numbered 
in  Christian  congregations,  to  whom  what  St.  Paul 
meant  by  "  sound  doctrine77  is  an  aversion.  They  do 
not  like  to  hear,  they  turn  away  from  hearing  so 
much  about  atonement  and  justification,  and  a  new 
heart,  and  faith,  and  all  the  inward  work  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  A  less  spiritual  religion  would  be  far  more 
to  their  taste — and  they  think  if  we  would  preach 
much  less  about  the  great  distinctive  features  of  the 
Gospel  and  more  about  mere  moral  duties — that  is, 
less  religion  and  more  of  something  else,  many  ears, 
now  turned  away,  would  hear.  Very  likely.  And 
under  the  influence  of  such  views,  the  testimony  of  the 
pulpit  is  sometimes  grievously  deformed.  The  min- 
ister seeks  to  commend  himself  more  to  the  people's 
preferences  than  their  consciences ;  and  hence,  of 


THE  WOKK  OF  PREACHING  CHRIST.  69 

course,  not  by  manifestation  of  the  truth  in  its  sim- 
plicity, directness,  spirituality  and  completeness. 
He  enlarges  the  list  of  communicants  by  reducing  the 
spiritual  qualifications  for  the  communion.  He  makes 
the  narrow  gate  wider  ;  invites  a  condition  of  mind 
which  the  Lord  invites  not.  The  middle  wall  of 
partition  between  the  church  and  the  world  is  broken 
down,  the  more  to  please  the  world,  the  more  to  en- 
large the  church.  Such  compliances  we  have  no 
right  to  make.  They  spring  out  of  unbelief.  They 
poison  the  life  of  the  church.  If  men  will  not  en- 
dure sound  doctrine  we  cannot  help  it,  we  have  no 
unsound  to  give.  If  the  ground  will  not  receive  the 
good  seed  given  us  to  sow,  we  cannot  mend  the  mat- 
ter by  sowing  bad  seed.  To  the  end  of  the  world, 
come  what  may,  that  seed  and  that  only  must  we 
sow,  "  God  (that  giveth  the  seed)  giveth  the  in- 
crease," and  will  give  it.  Our  strength  is  to  believe. 
But  to  preach  Christ  is  not  only  "  a  work  of  faith/' 
it  is  "  a  labor  of  love."  I  will  not  say  that  no  man 
can  do  it  in  a  certain  sense,  that  is,  with  doctrinal 
correctness,  without  the  love  of  Christ  in  his  heart ; 
for  St.  Paul  speaks  of  some  in  his  day  who  preached 
Christ,  "even  of  envy  and  strife,  not  sincerely/' 


70  THE  WORK  OF  PREACHING  CHRIST. 

from  selfish  and  evil  motives.  I  will  not  prolong  this 
discourse  in  enlarging  on  the  elementary  truth  that 
without  a  personal  experience  of  the  preciousness  of 
Christ  to  our  own  souls,  by  each  one's  individual  par- 
ticipation in  the  hope  that  rests  on  his  justifying 
righteousness,  and  is  witnessed  by  the  sanctifying 
power  of  His  Spirit  dwelling  in  us,  we  cannot  preach 
Christ,  according  to  his  will,  in  his  mind,  in  the  ten- 
derness and  earnestness  and  patience  and  godly  wis- 
dom which  alone  become  our  office,  however  correct 
our  teaching  in  a  mere  doctrinal  aspect.  What  I  wish, 
in  these  concluding  words  to  insist  on  is,  the  import- 
ance of  a  very  earnest,  tender  and  overcoming  love,  to 
give  spirituality  to  our  theology,  and  the  mind  of 
Christ  to  our  teachings  concerning  him.  Two  preach- 
ers, alike  in  accurate  and  full  statement  of  all  that 
is  revealed  concerning  our  blessed  Lord  and  his 
salvation,  may  be  very  different  in  the  spiritual 
power  of  their  ministry,  and  the  difference  will  not 
depend  so  much  on  the  superiority  of  talent  or  of 
eloquence,  or  even  of  diligence  in  one  over  the  other, 
as  on  their  comparison  in  point  of  love.  He  will 
preach  best  who  loves  most.  His  preaching  will  go 
most  to  the  heart,  and  will  be  attended  with  most 


THE  WOEK  OF  PREACHING  CHRIST.  71 

of  "  the  demonstration  of  the  Spirit/'  who,  in  all  he 
says  and  does,  is  most  constrained  by  the  love  of 
Christ,  dictating,  animating,  sanctifying,  with  the  ten- 
derness and  patient  earnestness  of  his  Masters7  mind, 
his  whole  discourse.  Oh,  brethren,  that  we  were 
more  earnest  to  grow  in  this  grace !  What  ought 
we  to  value  in  personal  attainment,  compared  with 
it  ?  If  your  ministry  fail  in  spiritual  efficacy,  inquire 
into  the  cause  by  searching  the  state  of  your  hearts 
in  regard  to  the  love  of  Christ  therein,  to  what 
extent  the  aim,  the  zeal,  the  topics,  the  temper  of 
your  work,  and  the  whole  character  of  your  personal 
example  are  under  the  dominion  of  that  love. 

But  I  have  already  occupied  too  much  of  your 
time,  and  yet  I  feel  that  I  have  come  very  far  short 
of  the  height  and  breadth  of  what  I  have  sought  to 
exhibit.  "  We  have  this  treasure  in  earthen  vessels, 
that  the  excellency  of  the  gower  may  be  of  God  and 
not  of  us.7'  Blessed  be  God,  that  in  our  weakness  we 
have  His  power  to  lean  on.  I  humbly  pray  that 
power  of  God  to  bless  to  you,  dear  brethren,  what  in 
so  much  weakness  and  imperfectness  and  unworthi- 
ness  I  have  now  addressed  to  you.  Nothing  in  this 
world  could  I  rejoice  in  so  much  as  to  be  instrumental, 


72  THE  WORK   OF   PREACHING   CHRIST. 

under  God's  grace,  in  promoting  the  spiritual  excel- 
lency and  efficacy  of  your  work  and  your  personal 
growth  in  the  faith  and  love  of  Christ.  The  time 
is  at  hand  when  nothing  else  will  seem  of  the  small- 
est value.  I  commend  you  to  God  and  the  word  of 
His  grace  which  is  able  to  build  you  up  and  make 
you  good  stewards  of  the  unsearchable  riches  of 
Christ.  "  The  God  of  peace  who  brought  again 
from  the  dead  our  Lord  Jesus,  that  great  Shepherd 
of  the  sheep,  through  the  blood  of  the  everlasting 
covenant,  make  you  perfect  in  every  good  work 
to  do  his  will,  working  in  you  that  which  is  well 
pleasing  in  his  sight,  through  Jesus  Christ,  to  whom 
be  glory  and  dominion  for  ever  and  ever."  Amen. 


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